


It isn't fate but I wish it was

by atkesst



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV), Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Crossover, Doppelganger, F/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-11-15 11:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 31,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18072746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atkesst/pseuds/atkesst
Summary: Caroline follows Stefan to Forks after he disappears following Damon's death. There, they run into another set of doppelgängers named Edward and Bella. Unlike Caroline and Stefan, Edward is a completely different kind of vampire; his heart doesn't beat, he has no blood, and he isn't burned in the sunlight.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story takes place in the summer at the beginning of Eclipse and at the beginning of season six of TVD after Stefan leaves because of his brother's death. For clarification, this fanfiction is based on the tv series for TVD and the books for Twilight. Personally, I ship Stelena more than Steroline but I felt like Steroline would be a lot more interesting to write about since their relationship wasn't nearly as "perfect" as Stelena and Delena where their feelings for Elena were because she looked like Katherine (at least at first).

Caroline POV:

"Caroline." Enzo appeared behind me. I had gone to this hotel looking for him after being pointed this way by Alaric.

"Oh, you scared me. Have you found Stefan yet?"

"In fact, I have," he smirked at me and presented to me an out of breath girl who I assumed was a witch. "Apparently, he has been in a town called Forks, Washington."

I frowned at him. "Why would he be there? What is in Forks?"

"Well," he gestured towards the witch. "She says that the Gemini Coven in Oregon might know how to bring back Bonnie and Damon. Maybe he's stopping there."

"Then we should go find him!"

"Washington is far away, Caroline. It'd be a waste of my time."

I thought back to the hundreds of voicemails I left and the fact that I hadn't seen him in months. Yes, Washington was pretty far away but it's Stefan. Stefan, who never gave up on anyone. He didn't give up on Damon even after he literally became a vampire-blood-drinking vampire. Months after Damon left, he's still out there looking for ways to bring him back. Of course, I'm a bit worried for him since he's so focused on solving the problem that he hasn't been back since he left; he hasn't even called.

"I'll leave right now," I decided.

"You realize that that is a two-day drive, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I'll just run."

Bella POV:

When I got home from work, Charlie was waiting for me at the table, holding an envelope. "Hey, Bella. I have a surprise for you."

My eyes locked on the envelope in his hands. "Yeah, dad?"

"Well, you don't go out very much, so I bought you two tickets to the fair."

My eyes widened. I thought about how fun it would be to go with Edward. We could go on rides, eat cotton candy, well, I could eat cotton candy; it would be the perfect Sunday. Charlie cut my thoughts short.

"I know what you're thinking and I would feel a lot better if you go with Angela Weber."

My face fell. "Aww… but dad… It would be so much fun to go with Edward…"

Charlie sighed. "Bella, you spend all of your time with him. You really should spend more time with your other friends. Besides, I'll be out of town for the weekend so the two of you can have a sleepover."

I was disappointed, but I thanked him for the tickets and went up to my room to read; it was six o'clock and Edward wouldn't be here yet. Not paying attention to what I was doing, I picked up my book and flung myself onto my soft, warm bed.

Lying next to me was Edward, clearly amused that I hadn't noticed him.

"I wasn't expecting you to be here so early!" I said, trying to sound accusing; it was pretty hard to hide how happy I was to see him.

"I heard you talking with Charlie." He grinned as if he knew something I didn't.

I tilted my head. "How long have you been here?"

"I got in when you opened the door."

I tried my hardest not to smile and settled for a grimace.

"I'm here because Alice told me to come. Earlier she had a vision of you falling off of a sidewalk at the fair." He laughed at the memory of Alice's vision. "So I was wondering if I could join you and Angela on Sunday."

My eyes lit up in relief; I wouldn't have to spend a whole day without him. Then I remembered my conversation with Charlie, I wasn't allowed to go to the fair with Edward. And lying to Charlie made me feel guilty.

"Yeah, I know, you have to use one of the tickets on Angela."

"I thought you couldn't read my mind."

He chuckled. "Alice saw that." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another ticket. "He didn't specifically say I couldn't go with you, just that you have to bring Angela."

—

I set down the curling iron when I heard the doorbell ring. I rushed down the stairs and opened the door to see Angela.

"Hey, Bella. Thank you so much for inviting me," she said while setting down her bag. She looked up and me and started laughing. "Love the hair."

I blush as I remember that I hadn't finished curling my hair. Half of it was in giant curls while the other was flat. "I was trying out something different. I'll finish it, don't worry." I sat down next to her and helped her unroll her sleeping bag.

"You know what would look perfect with those curls?" Angela suddenly asks, "This eyeliner I bought a couple of weeks ago. I can't really pull off dark eyeliner but it would totally work on you." She fished around in her bag and pulled out a little black bottle. Usually, I would refuse but I decided to let her have her fun since I hadn't really spent any time with her since I started dating Edward.

A few accidental eye-stabbings and redos later, Angela (a pretty terrible makeup artist I must say) stepped back and smiled, admiring her work. "How do I look?" I asked.

"You look so different. Really pretty, but different." Angela said. "Kind of intimidating, actually. Like you could rip someone's head off."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Do you have a mirror? I want to see."

"I think I left mine at home," she said while looking through her bag. "Let's go to your bathroom and you can see there." I nod and run up the stairs. When I see my reflection, I'm shocked. Angela was right; I look beautiful but scary at the same time.

"Hey, Tyler." I crossed my arms and tilted my head. "I saw that you knew what Jessica's name was when I'm the only girl you're supposed to know!" I pouted, proud of my pretty solid Lauren impression.

Angela laughed. "You do look a lot like her other than your un-blondeness. Way better, obviously, but the curls and eyeliner are perfect," she said. "Do the weird flirty thing."

I put my hand on my hip and bit my lip. I leaned over onto the counter. "Don't I look- OW!" My hand landed directly on the still hot curling iron. I leaped back clutching my wrist but I could already see the blisters forming on my red palm. Of course, I forgot to turn it off.

"Bella! Are you alright?" Angela shouted, running to my side and inspecting my burnt hand.

"Yeah, thanks. Not the first time I've done that and definitely not the last" I mumbled, flinching while I run it under the sink. "I'll just wrap it and it should be fine." Angela looks at me concerned but hands me a bandage.

After cleaning up in the bathroom, Angela and I got into our PJs and watched Buffy (which really cracked me up now) for a couple of hours before we were exhausted and climbed into our sleeping bags. About ten minutes after we turned off the lights, the doorbell rang.

"Who could that be? It's-" Angela sat up and glanced at her phone. "12:39."

"Well, can you answer the door? I'm way too tired for this." I murmured, face down on a pillow. Angela got up and carefully opened the door.

I heard a woman's voice from the doorway, "Sorry to be bothering you at such a late time." she said in a voice filled with urgency. "But have you seen him at all?" Angela, upon seeing whatever the woman showed her motioned for me to come to the door. I walked over to the door and saw the visitor; a blonde girl who was probably in her late teens. Angela was staring at the picture.

Right as I made eye contact with the girl, she gasped and suddenly disappeared in a blur; something only a vampire could do.

"Yeah, I do know who this is. Why do you-" Angela looked up from the picture to see that no one was there and turned around to me. "Wait, what just happened?" I shrugged, not knowing either.

Surely Alice must have seen her in a vision. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to warn the Cullens that the threat was in town but was interrupted by Angela. "Bella, look." she gestured to the stranger's picture she had left. There was a couple standing at what looked like a dance. "That's Edward." She pointed to the man in the suit. "And that's you." And there I was. In a dress I'd never worn.

In broad daylight.


	2. Chapter 2

From Alice at 6:32 No, I haven't seen her. Are you sure it wasn't Rosalie? That description sounds like Rosalie.

From Bella at 6:33 Don't you think I would notice if it was Rosalie?

From Alice at 6:33 Okay, sorry. I will keep looking. Don't worry too much. Have fun with Edward and Angela.

I sighed. If Alice wasn't stressed out then I shouldn't be either. Angela was still asleep but I was still staring at the picture that the stranger had left. My hair was longer and Edward's was shorter and less messy. His skin was tanner- as if he was human.

RING RING RING

Edward's number showed up on my screen. "Edward? You wouldn't believe what happened."

"Yeah, Alice filled me in. Just tell Angela that the picture was of us at a party or something so that she doesn't freak out. I'm on my way to pick you up."

"Was that Edward? Does he know what happened?" Angela asked while brushing her hair.

I put down the phone. "I feel kind of silly now. That picture was from a party Edward and I went to last year." I said, hoping that Angela would buy it. She nodded and went to the bathroom to change. Right as she closed the door, she slammed it open again.

"Bella!"

"What?" I said nervously, hoping she hadn't questioned the fact that Edward and I had gone to a party; we never go anywhere.

"We need to do your hair and makeup like we did yesterday! Edward would love it!" she shrieked. I rolled my eyes as she pulled out the curling iron.

As I was rolling up the sleeping bags from last night, I heard a knock at the door.

I timidly opened the door, unsure of whether it was Edward or not. But there he was, smiling and looking gorgeous as ever. I grinned at him; I always felt safer when Edward was around. It's pretty hard to get hurt with an indestructible vampire boyfriend at your side.

"You look stunning, Bella. Is Angela ready to go?" he said, clearly shocked by my very un-Bellaish look.

"Here I am!" Angela said. "I was just checking to make sure I unplugged the curling iron." She smirked at me and I showed Edward the wrap on my hand.

Edward shook his head at me. "Of course you managed to hurt yourself," he said and took my uninjured hand and the three of us headed outside to the car.

"So I heard you were pretty freaked out last night, Angela," Edward asked while driving.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird that that girl came in the middle of the night asking to see the two of you."

"I think that it was all a misunderstanding," Edward said smoothly. "I talked to Rosalie and apparently she has a biological cousin we had never heard about. She knew that Rosalie is my sister so she was asking around if people knew me."

"At midnight?" Angela inquired.

"According to Rosalie, she's pretty weird," Edward shrugged. Angela accepted Edward's explanation and relaxed in her seat. I looked over at him to know if what he said was true but the look on his face told me that he only told her to keep her from finding out more than she needed to know.

Once we arrived at the fair, we gave the man at the gate our tickets. But when he counted them, he only accepted mine and Angela's. He looked at Edward and said, "You know that these tickets pay for a whole day. You don't have to use one each time you leave the park." Edward looked at him with a confused look on his face.

"I just got here. I'm not reentering."

"That's weird. I swore I just saw you come in an hour ago. I guess not," he said, staring at Edward trying to remember him. "Well, have a good day!" We thanked him and went through the gates. I glanced at Edward, trying to figure out who the man had seen.

"Bella," he whispered. "I saw what was in his mind. He definitely saw me before. Apparently, I came in here two hours ago."

"What?" I demanded. "How is that possible?" Angela stared at me.

"Are you two okay?" She questioned. Edward smiled at her reassuringly.

"Everything is fine. Do you two want some cotton candy? I'll go find some," he said to us and took off to look for his long lost twin or whoever the other Edward was.

Angela and I wandered around the fair for a while. We bought ourselves some fizzy drinks with the money I had saved up from working at Mike's shop. While Angela got a cherry flavored red drink, I got the blueberry. Turns out, blueberry drinks are absolutely disgusting but Angela liked it so we ended up trading.

I was getting nervous when Edward still hadn't shown up for about ten minutes. When we were at the top of the Ferris wheel, Angela said, "Why is she here?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's Rosalie's cousin."

"What? Angela?"

She didn't answer me and just stared at the ground. I followed her gaze to below the Ferris wheel. Standing there was the same girl who had shown up at our door the night before. But right as I saw her, she was gone again. Angela looked at me and asked with urgency in her voice, "Bella? What is going on?" All I could do was stare at her and though I knew of the existence of vampires and werewolves I knew no more about what was going on than her.

As soon as we got off of the ride and were near a less busy part of the park she was berating me again. "Why won't you tell me anything? I get the feeling that you and Edward know a lot more than you're letting on." I felt guilty that I couldn't tell my best friend what I knew but it was all to protect her.

"I'm sorry Ang but I don't know any more than you do," I said, hoping she would stop asking.

"Oh, sure you don't! That's why you haven't even asked why Edward isn't here when he was only supposed to get cotton candy. You two are inseparable and you haven't even done as much as text him!" she yelled. "Bella-" she turned around to continue ranting me but ended up throwing some of her drink. The majority of it landed on the ground while some of it splashed on my burnt hand. It seemed through the bandage which exacerbated the pain. I peeled off the bandage and saw that my palm turned redder than it had before from the carbonated drink. "Oh, I'm so sorry Bella I didn't mean-" she started. And then everything went wrong.

I felt something pierce my stomach. I looked down to see a wooden stake sticking out of my abdomen and the sight of the blood flowing quickly out of the wound almost made me faint. I heard Angela scream and then, Edward was above me. "Oh thank god you're here!" I said in relief. But then I realized. His eyes were black. I spoke as calmly as I could, "Don't look at the blood. It's going to be-" he cut me off.

"How are you alive?" he snarled. "I killed you!" I stared at him, not having a clue what he was talking about. I was starting to lose consciousness from the lack of blood.

"Why did you stab me? It hurts so much…" I moaned, closing my eyes.

"The other side is gone. There is no way that you should still be here." he hissed, ignoring my pain. He seemed less angry and his expression changed to that of sadness. "If anyone deserved to escape from that hell it would be my brother, not you," he spat. "Katherine."


	3. Chapter 3

Edward…'s lookalike... looked over at Angela who was still staring in shock. He stared into her eyes at spoke in a tone completely different from his previous shouting. "Leave. Go to the Ferris wheel and forget that you saw me." Angela immediately obeyed and walked away.

"Edward?"

"Who's Edward?"

"Who's Katherine?"

"Okay, look. You can't try to pretend that you're another doppelgänger or whatever. If there was one, the travelers' spell wouldn't have worked." he said. I didn't know how to respond; he was completely convinced that I was Katherine, whoever that was.

"Wait, did you just say doppelgänger?" I asked, suddenly realizing what might be going on. "You don't think that there are any left. But my boyfriend, Edward, looks exactly like you." He was about to respond when he was thrown off of me.

"Bella!" Edward yelled. "Oh my god… there's so much blood."

"Can you tell me what's going on?"

The scene in front of me was probably the strangest thing I had ever witnessed. Leaning over me was my boyfriend, eyes black from the sight of my blood. Standing next to us was my boyfriend's… doppelgänger. And arms crossed with an exasperated look on her face as if this happens every day was the creepy blonde girl I just couldn't seem to get rid of. When no one responded to her, she sighed and wooshed her way next to me. Edward hissed at her, "What are you doing?"

I winced as she pulled the stake from my stomach. She casually bit her arm open. "Drink," she ordered me. When I stared at her in shock she forced her arm in front of my mouth and I was forced to swallow her blood. Almost instantly, I felt the wound close up as if it had never been there. Both Edward and I were staring at my stomach which was now completely fine. "Okay so let me get this straight," she said to Mr. doppelgänger. "You've been gone for a month without saying goodbye to anyone and now you're here trying to kill another one of Elena's doppelgängers? How did you not realize she's human?"

"I thought I was Katherine's doppelgänger," I said, trying to make sense of what's happening.

"We'll explain later," he said. Then he turned to the girl, "I saw her hand! It blistered when that shake I put vervain in spilled on it. Caroline, I didn't even know they lived here when I moved." This upset Caroline and she started yelling. I looked down at my hand. The vervain (whatever that is) hadn't burned it; I'm just clumsy when it comes to curling irons.

"Moved? I thought you were supposed to be looking for ways to undo the curse! I can't even go home without burning ali-"

"Did you just say you were a vampire?" Edward interrupted. They both turned to him and Caroline mumbled, "No, I didn't say that but yes we are."

He continued, "But you bleed. And your blood heals people."

"Well," Caroline said. "You're obviously not human so what are you?" Edward opened his mouth to answer and then closed it again. I knew he was going to say vampire but obviously, that's a pretty broad term.

"I'm the same as you. But only in the 'drinking blood' sense. I don't bleed so I can't heal people as you can." he said, choosing his words carefully. "I can also read minds." Right when I thought I couldn't be more confused, he started answering questions from Caroline's mind. "No, I can not mind control people and no it's not something my whole species can do. Reading minds is my power. Who the hell is Silas?"

People were starting to stare. It must look silly from their perspective; a set of twins staring at each other as if they had never met before and one of them is talking to himself. Edward's doppelgänger seemed to notice too and spoke up, "Do you guys want to go somewhere to discuss this? This probably isn't the best place to talk so loudly about vampires." We all nodded in agreement and got up to leave when I remembered about the friend I brought with me.

"Oh! Uh… what's your name again?"

"Me? I'm Stefan."

"Where's Angela? She's the one that you.." I struggled to find words for whatever Stefan did.

"Compelled," he helped me out. "She should still be at the Ferris wheel." I felt relief wash over me and I thanked him and started walking over there to go get Angela when Edward grabbed my arm.

"Bella," he raised his eyebrows at me. "Do you really think that it'd be a good idea for her to see you like that?" he gestured down at my bloody shirt with a hole exposing my completely healed midriff. "And I think she might be a little bit confused when she sees two of me  _and_ Caroline. I'll make up a story and drive her home. Why don't you go with-" he hesitated, not sure if he trusted the two of them.

"Don't worry," Caroline reassured him. "We won't hurt Bella. We can take her to her place and we'll discuss everything we know." Edward looked at Caroline for a couple of seconds and decided to trust her from whatever he heard in her head. Then we took off.

By the time we arrived at my house, I had explained pretty much every aspect of how Edward's species of vampire worked. Caroline had hundreds of questions.

"They don't have to burn in the sunlight? They just  _sparkle!?_ I want that. Humans are turned just by being bitten? So there's no dying involved? And how do they even function without fangs? Oh and if they don't have any blood then how does he get-"

Stefan cut her off, thankfully. "We're here." We all got out of the car and walked towards the house. I opened the door with the key from under the flowerpot. When I got into the house, I was confused about why they didn't follow me inside. Caroline answered my unvoiced question, "We can't come in until-"

She was cut off all of a sudden, "Until you invite them inside," said Alice, who had suddenly appeared on my porch.

"I've sure been interrupted a lot today," muttered Caroline. "Who are you?"

Alice ignored her and focused on me, "Don't let them in, Bella. You only trust them because he," she gestured to Stefan, "looks like Edward."

"Hey! We would never hurt Bella." Caroline shouted, evidently offended. Stefan put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"She has a point. Bella doesn't have to let us in until she can trust us." he turned towards Alice and started to apologize but she had disappeared just as fast as she came. "Let me guess, she's a witch?"

I didn't even know witches existed but after today, so must dragons. Probably shouldn't say that; I'll jinx it. "No, she's just Edwards psychic sister. She gets a little dramatic sometimes."

"Ooh, fun. Bonnie 2.0," Caroline sighed and Stefan laughed. Something about the way they looked at each other after mentioning her told me there was a reason Bonnie wasn't with them at the moment. I looked at her questioningly and she said, "Seeing that you are a doppelgänger and you don't seem as bad as Katherine, we should just tell you everything."

"Well, I have a lot of time." I urged her.

Stefan smiled. "I guess I'll just start from the first supernatural being I ran into. A century and a half, I met Katherine Pierce."

It took about an hour for Stefan and Caroline, to sum up all the different types of supernatural beings they knew of. I went from knowing about Vampires and Werewolves to knowing about the original vampire family, witches, even more werewolves, hybrids, travelers, and anchors. And then they explained some pretty weird stuff like daylight and resurrection rings and how apparently there is an afterlife. By the end, I was just as confused if not more.

"Okay, so the world is crazy. But I still don't know why you," I looked at Stefan, whose similarity to Edward was getting distracting, "are here in Forks." Caroline, who didn't seem to know either, stared at him, waiting for him to answer.

"It would take too long to explain how, but my brother died a couple of months ago. I moved to Washington two months ago hoping to start over in a place rainy enough that I didn't need to wear this." he pulled his daylight ring out of his pocket. "I just got to this town a week ago because it's small and the chances of running into other vampires were low. Evidently, I was wrong since Edward's family lives-"

Suddenly, Caroline snapped. "You've lived here for over two months?" she demanded.

"Yeah I guess I… have," he responded, noticeably uncomfortable.

"Well I guess that's just weird because you know, everyone thought you were looking for ways to get Damon and Bonnie back and take the spell off our town! Instead, you've been here doing what exactly?"

Stefan went silent. "I came to the West Coast following a lead about a group of witches in Oregon called the Gemini coven."

Caroline shook her head furiously, her blonde curls bouncing. "Seeing as you're here and not in Oregon, that can't be the reason."

Stefan was suddenly just as angry as her and he stood up.

"For months, Caroline, I followed every lead Alaric sent me, I spoke to every witch, every shaman, every psychic in over twenty countries and all of them were dead ends." Caroline looked like she was going to keep arguing when Edward arrived.

"Is everything all right? I heard screaming." I knew Edward was only asking so not to freak them out since he would've heard the entire conversation on his drive here.

"No," Caroline politely smiled, "Everything is fine."

"Well, it's getting pretty dark. You two should probably head home."

Caroline and Stefan looked each other awkwardly, "We don't actually have anywhere to go," said Caroline, "But I can get a hotel room."

Alice suddenly appeared (again).

"You can stay at our place. I discussed everything with the others and they are all fine with you staying."

"Can you teleport?"

"Is that a yes or a no?

Stefan nodded and Caroline agreed reluctantly. We all got into Edwards car and headed to their house with Alice in the middle seat in the back.


	4. Chapter 4

Esme and Carlisle were as welcoming to the two new vampires as they were to me. Jasper seemed uncomfortable at first, probably from sensing the tension between the two from the earlier fight, but he ended up getting along well with Stefan. Emmett explained vampire baseball to them right as he found out that Stefan did in fact like sports. I could see the jealousy forming the second Rosalie laid eyes on Caroline, but really, what did I expect when I introduced the most self-absorbed girl I knew to another blonde with looks that rivaled hers.

The only problem was the conflicting diets. It got a little been awkward when Caroline asked for a blood bag.

"Wait," Emmett said, "You two drink human blood?"

Caroline POV:

My eyes widen in shock and embarrassment when I realized that the Cullens shared the same animal-loving tastes that Stefan did. I quickly jabbered away, "No. I mean, Stefan doesn't. I do. I don't kill people or anything, I just drink from blood bags."

Emmett was still staring at me, "Blood bags? Do you drink them like juice boxes?"

"Emmett," scolded Esme who then smiled reassuringly at me, "Don't worry, we can get you some from the hospital. You can wait until tomorrow, right?" I nodded, grateful that they weren't completely weirded out.

Dinner was… strange. Since their type of vampires didn't have to eat for some reason, Stefan, Elena- I mean Bella, and I ate what Esme cooked- which was really good considering that she couldn't taste it. I was starting to absolutely love Esme; she owned the most beautiful house ever. I really wanted to introduce her to my mom.

Carlisle intrigued me the most. Among the vampires back in Mystic Falls, I had the least blood on my hands which probably was because I was the most recently turned next to Elena. Other than the Mikaelson family, he's the oldest vampire I knew and somehow he had managed to never drink human blood in his life even as a surgeon.

At the end of the night, Esme welcomed us to share rooms with the other people in the house. Bella, who usually would have stayed in Edward's room ended up sleeping with Alice because Edward decided that Stefan would probably be most comfortable with him. If I had a doppelgänger, I personally wouldn't want to sleep in the same bed as mine but at the same time, as Emmett pointed out, you get to change in the same room because there's nothing you hadn't seen before.

I finally joined Alice and Bella because Rosalie is… scary. Not as much as Katherine, but she is pretty close. Turns out, Alice is a little creepy but her obsession with fashion made me warm up to her quickly. I mean her closet is literally another room. She probably owns every outfit I've ever seen. Needless to say, we spent an hour or two playing dress up.

Once Bella fell asleep, Alice left the room to go hunt with Edward and the rest of the family. But a half an hour later, I was still awake. For a while, I focused in on Edward's room just to hear Stefan's breathing. As creepy as it sounds, it was comforting to hear something familiar. I was already starting to miss the guys back at home and something about Bella looking exactly like Elena made me miss her even more.

Then I heard Stefan's voice, "Caroline?" he says. I wasn't expecting him to be awake. "You don't have to respond because according to Edward, Bella is a light sleeper so I don't want to wake her up. I just want to apologize for disappearing for such a long time. But I couldn't bring myself to come back without Damon and Bonnie because I knew how disappointed you and Elena would be. I gave up when I finally realized that they're gone. They disappeared along with the other side and I'm so sorry."

Of course, I knew that Bonnie was dead but hearing Stefan say it just made it so… final. "And I know it's been hard for you; you feel like you aren't allowed to mourn Bonnie because Elena lost Damon. And then you lost me. I can't apologize enough for disappearing but I felt like I had to cut myself off from everything that reminded me of him." Tears formed in my eyes when I realized that that meant he hadn't heard any of the hundreds of voicemails I had left him. He continued, "Caroline, you're the strongest person I know. I hope you can forgive me."

I didn't sleep well that night.

I got up early the next day hoping to beat Esme to the kitchen so that I could prepare breakfast for the food eating half of the house. But when I entered the kitchen, I saw that Edward and Bella laughing as they made pancakes together.

Watching silently from the corner of the room, I was saddened by how happy they were. Never with Damon, not Tyler, not even Matt had we been as happy to just be with each other as Bella was with Edward. The last time I saw a couple as happy as them was back when Stefan and Elena were together. But somehow, I could sense that unlike Stefan and Elena, there was nothing that could separate Edward and Bella.

He smiled and nodded at me. I rolled my eyes and said, "I forgot that you could read my mind. It's creepy, you know."

Bella laughed; it must be nice to be her knowing that she was safe from anything a vampire could do to her. Other than getting her blood drank, of course. Edward frowned. Ugh! Get out of my head. It's a small world, after all, it's a small worl-

The doorbell rang. Edward walked over, "It's Angela. Caroline, Bella, you should go upstairs. I'll talk to her."

We agreed and ran upstairs. From Alice's room, I focused on the voices at the door.

"Edward, I don't know if that was some stupid prank or something, but what the hell did you do to Bella?" she screamed.

"Sorry, but what do you mean?"

"How would you not know? You stabbed her right in front of me."

"Why don't you come inside and sit down."

Edward said quietly underneath his breath at a volume only Stefan and I could hear, "What exactly did you tell her when you compelled her?"

Stefan appeared in the bedroom. He whispered, "I told her to wait by the Ferris wheel and forget she saw me."

"Well, she obviously didn't do either of those because she wasn't even at the fair when I went to go pick her up yesterday and now she clearly hasn't forgotten."

Stefan and I repeated the conversation to Bella whose human hearing was keeping her out of the loop. We continued to listen to Angela shout at Edward downstairs when Stefan finally spoke up, "Back at the fair, you switched drinks right?"

Bella facepalmed, "Of course. You put vervain in my drink to see if I was a vampire. Angela drank that one instead of me."

"How could you have forgotten that?" I cried in frustration. Stefan looked at me, silently asking if I was still upset with him. I shook my head, "Don't worry. I would've done the same. I'll go deal with her."

Angela gasped when she saw me. I sighed and muttered an apology before sinking my teeth into her forearm. Her blood was completely clear of vervain.

"Leave, forget everything that happened today and yesterday. You and Bella had a perfect time at the fair but you left early because you were feeling sick. The bite on your arm is from your dog," I said while staring into her eyes.

"But I didn't. Why did you bite me?"

I stared at her, confused as to how she was still fully aware of what was happening. I tried again, "Leave, forget every-"

"Caroline," Stefan placed his hand on my shoulder. "You know what this means."

"Her? There's no way." I said.

"Angela," Stefan said calmly, "You're a witch."


	5. Chapter 5

It took a bit of time, but we finally were able to convince Angela that she was a witch when she panicked from all four of us trying to talk to her at the same time and lit my hair on fire. Bonnie had never done anything like that so of course, I was a little bit pissed.

Thankfully, we were able to put it out quickly when Stefan threw a glass of water over my head leaving my curls just slightly singed.

Bella POV:

While Stefan and Caroline stayed at the Cullen's attempting to explain the very confusing situation to Angela, Edward and I headed to my house. The ride was pretty quiet; I was content holding hands with Edward as he drove slightly over the speed limit. It was nice to have some quiet after the crazy past couple of days. As we were pulling into the driveway, Edward finally spoke up.

"Bella," he said seriously. He hesitated. I looked at him questioningly, fearing that he was going to be angry with me. "Do you think that Stefan is… attractive?"

I stared at him for a minute. Then I burst into laughter. "Edward Cullen! Are you jealous?" I could see from his expression that he would blush if he could. I shrugged, "Physically, yeah he's pretty hot."

Edward looked shocked, almost offended. This only made me laugh harder, "He's your freaking doppelgänger, Edward! Of course, I think he's attractive!" He thought about this for a second before deciding he was satisfied with my answer, Edward got out of the car and wooshed over to my side and pulled the door open for me. I playfully curtsied and then shrieked he threw me over his shoulder.

"Edward!" I complained, only half wanting him to let me go. I slammed my fists into his back knowing that it wouldn't actually hurt him. "Put me down!" He was in the process of spinning me around when suddenly, I was on my feet standing next to him. I was about to tell him I was joking when I asked him to stop when the door opened. I felt my face whiten when I saw Charlie standing there.

"You have a lot of explaining to do."

Fifteen minutes later, Charlie had calmed down. Edward explained that I had only slept over because we didn't realize he would be coming over and with all the unexplained murders in Seattle Carlisle hadn't wanted me to be in my house by myself. He also told him that his cousins were over; probably so that Charlie wouldn't think that we had had the house to ourselves. Edward was always a great liar; he knew how to tell people exactly what they wanted to hear.

Something about how easily my father took the lie felt unsettling. For over a year now, I had been lying to everyone I knew; Charlie, Renee, Jessica, Angela, well, not so much Angela now I guess. But somehow, even with vampires roaming in and out of Forks and people mysteriously dying everywhere, everyone still believed our lies. Anyone I cared about could just die and everyone would believe it was from a car accident or animal attack without thinking twice about it.

Though Charlie chose to trust Edwards story, he still decided not to let me leave the house for a couple of days; basically a more polite form of grounding me. Usually, I would protest but to be completely honest, I wasn't in the mood to have to deal with Angela as we explained that no, all those animal attacks in Forks were not, in fact, animal attacks.

Caroline POV:

"Phasmatos incendia," Angela said with her voice full of doubt. The candle Stefan placed in front of her flickered for a second but died out the second she looked away from it. I sighed. Incendia was one of the only spells I could remember since I tended to ignore Bonnie when she was chanting. Stefan tried to help.

"You don't just say the spell," he taught her. "You have to actually try to light the candle. The words are just helpful."

"Why was she able to light my hair on fire so easily earlier? She didn't even use a spell," I said impatiently. I get that Angela was having a hard time but looking this good takes a lot of work and crisp tips are not my definition of gorgeous.

"That wasn't on purpose. It was simply her magic out of control. I've seen it before when Bonnie lit a car on fire by staring at it," he explained. Then he said to Angela, "Try again."

She took a deep breath and then muttered the words again while staring intently at the candle. Flames shot up like a firework before they came down again leaving the candle lit. I had to admit I was impressed; she managed to not set the table ablaze.

Stefan stared at her for a moment and then congratulated her. That one look he gave her struck something in me. Was it jealousy? I ignored it.

After a couple more candle lightings, Angela decided she was ready for harder spells. Stefan taught her the fire extinguishing spell which was another form of the Incendia but after that, neither of us could recall of any other incantations. Just another reason to miss Bonnie.

"Is there a Wikipedia or something for spells I can check?" Angela asked, obviously bored of just controlling a candle. Stefan shook his head.

"Unless we can find another witch, our best bet is to look through a witch's grimoire," he told her. "But since the witch trait is genetic so I recommend you look through your family's things."

Angela agreed to search through her parent's old books. She left and took the candle and a sticky note she had written the spells on. Stefan reminded her to not tell anyone about it, not even her family and to always keep a bucket of water nearby when doing spells.

As soon as she left, I ran upstairs to attempt to fix my awful hair. But it only took one look at the mirror to know that a shower would not fix the blackened ends. They were blackened and crumbled when I touched them. My only option was to cut them all off.

I've never dared cut my hair myself before. The thought of messing up and looking anything short of perfect terrified me. But since going to a stylist where they might accidentally clip my skin and see how fast I heal was probably not the best idea my only option was to do it here. Thankfully, I wouldn't have to use the kitchen scissors I brought with me as Alice had a pair of hair-cutting shears in her drawer.

"Need a little help?"

Startled, I flung the scissors across the room. Stefan caught them an inch away from his shoulder.

"Don't scare me when I'm holding sharp objects!" I yelled. "Anyways, I don't need your help." I went back to angrily clipping my curls.

He chuckled. "How are you planning to cut the back of your head?" I frowned and tried to twist my shoulders in a way that I could see the mirror but my hair moved with them. Stefan gave me a look of I told you so and pulled up a stool from the hallway. "Sit."

I reluctantly agreed and sat down facing the mirror but he turned me around. "I want it to be a surprise," he said, sure of himself.

"How do I know you won't give me a bowl cut?" I asked nervously.

He laughed, "You're just going to have to trust me." He picked up a comb and started to smooth out my curls. "Anyways, I'm sure you'd look great in a bowl cut."

I cringed at the sound of the clicking scissors. I really hoped that Stefan knew what he was doing because my hair was probably the best thing about my appearance. Then I remembered that I was a vampire. "Stefan!" I shouted, whipping my head around so fast that had Stefan not moved his hand away I would've smacked my face into the scissors. "I'm dead! Is my hair going to grow back?"

"Yes, Caroline," he rolled his eyes. "You'll have your long hair back in a couple of months."

I settled back in my chair in relief. At least if he completely ruined my hair I wouldn't be stuck that way for the rest of eternity. "Thank you," I mumbled.

He simply nodded as he was focused on working on parting my hair with the comb. When he ran his hands over my scalp I felt so comfortable I could fall asleep. He pretended not to notice my shiver when his fingers brushed my neck.

I looked down at the floor of the bathroom and was hit by a wave of sadness. Something about seeing my bouncy curls laying on the floor made me miss the innocent- though somewhat mean- Caroline Forbes, captain of the cheer team who's only problems were not having the perfect dress for prom or the new guy at school falling for my best friend instead of me.

So much had happened since I was turned. I'd like to believe I'm a better person than I was as a human. I mean, back then I had such low standards I would even date Damon and allow him to push me around just because I couldn't get his brother. My insecurity and jealousy acted up constantly and Stefan choosing Elena over me was just so upsetting. I had a crush on him just because he was hot and hard to get but that was long over. I mean, knowing Elena, she would eventually get over Damon and her and Stefan would have their happily ever after. Finding each other was literally fate so why wouldn't they end up together. I just wish it wasn't.

When he finally finished, Stefan spun me around to see the mirror. I was speechless. My hair was shorter than Bonnie's but longer than my mother's. Nothing about the girl I saw was that annoying blonde from high school. I looked beautiful.

I turned to Stefan who was smiling at his handiwork. "Thank you so much," I said while pulling him into a hug. We embraced for a little longer than I planned but the feeling of his arms around me made me forget my worries about Elena that I only released him when I knew any longer would be awkward. But as soon as I pulled away I missed him. I thanked him again and hurried down the stairs and threw myself onto the couch to try to sort out my thoughts.

This is not going to end well for me.


	6. Chapter 6

"Put on some party clothes and come to Whitmore. Tyler's coming over, and we are going out," Elena told me over the phone. Somehow I'd forgotten to tell her I was in Washington. It was nice to hear her voice again, even if I had only been gone a couple of days.

"You sound good."

"I am good. I had a good day. I ditched all my classes and hung out with Ric. We talked about Bonnie. I had a good cry, and, I don't know… I really feel like things are taking a turn for the better. So get your ass down here and let's have some fun," she said. Her cheerful tone told me that she had let Alaric proceed with her idea with erasing Damon from her memories.

"I'd love to go with you, but I'm actually not in Mystic Falls."

"Then where are you? Can't you just drive here?"  
"I'm in Forks."

"Where the hell is Forks?"

I sighed. I did leave without telling anyone, but I had hoped Enzo would have at least told Elena of my absence. "In… Washington," I said.

"DC or the state?"

"DC obviously. Forks is one of the many cities in DC." I could practically hear Elena roll her eyes at my sarcasm. "I'm here with Stefan. I came here to find him after he disappeared."

"Then why aren't you two back yet?"

"Well-" I started. But nothing came out. I hadn't thought about it much, but I really had no idea. "We should come back soon."

With the Cullen family still on their hunting trip, Bella grounded, and Stefan asleep, I found myself spending the early morning making breakfast with Edward. Since we'd arrived in Forks, I hadn't really gotten to talk to him much so it was nice to get to know him while preparing eggs for Stefan and me.

Small talk with him was surprisingly easy. He gave me the courtesy of pretending not to hear my thoughts and responded to what I said instead of what I was thinking, probably so I wouldn't freak out. We talked about the normal things you talk about while avoiding awkward silence; my super cute new haircut, the gloomy weather in Forks, and if I was behind the murders in Seattle. I'm not, by the way.

And then we got to talking about Bella. "Well, what do you want to know?" he asked me when I finally brought it up.

I thought for a second, "I just thought it was strange that the doppelgangers somehow always meet even if they were born in completely different places."

He agreed, "I did think it was weird that I managed to find the one girl who not only could I not read but whose blood was the first to make me seriously question my diet in years. I figured it couldn't have been a coincidence."

"So was it just love at first sight? You don't think it's strange that you might only love her because of the whole doppelganger curse?"

He shook his head. "It wasn't love at first sight. The only thought I had when I met her was ripping her throat open. Even though we weren't really welcome here because of the Quileutes, I was still drawn here and I guess that was the curse in action. But my love for Bella is no mystery to me. She's sweet and caring and she's the first woman I've met that really understands me. That couldn't have been determined thousands of years ago."

I pursed my lips. "But how do you know? Maybe it's just because of the curse that you've never had feelings for anyone else."

He laughed. "Not that I can remember much about being human, but I think I recall fancying a girl or two back in the early twentieth century. Just because I was fated to meet her doesn't mean I had no free will. Why do you care, anyway?"

I shrugged nonchalantly but secretly was glad that the curse wasn't as binding as I thought it was. "I just wanted to know. Since Bella and you are so happy together."

"I think you forget that I can hear your thoughts. That's not why."

I blushed and looked away. I really didn't want to have to discuss my feelings for Stefan with Edward; there was no one I wanted to tell. He raised an eyebrow. And… he heard that. I am going to need to work on this. I changed the subject. "Oh, so Edward. I was thinking," I said. "Do you ever wish you could go out in the sun? In public, I mean."

He thought for a second. "I guess I don't really think about it anymore. I'm so used to just staying away from everyone that disappearing on sunny days doesn't bother me. But, there are days when it's pretty inconvenient to have to stay inside on the rare days the sun exists."

Being fenced in by something as ubiquitous as sunlight can get pretty annoying. I stepped out of the light shining through the window and removed the ring from my pointer finger. "Try this," I offered. "Maybe it'll work on you, too."

Edward looked at the lapis lazuli stone curiously. He slipped it on his finger and stepped into the light shining through the window. But instead of being immune to the light like I expected sunlight still reflected off of him in every direction. I watched the specks of light for about a half-second before I realized my skin was burning. I dropped to the floor and cried out in pain while Edward stared at me without realizing what was wrong. It was when my skin started blistering red that he jumped out of the sunlight in a flash. He handed me back the ring and I shoved it back on my hand.

"I'm so sorry, Caroline! I didn't realize you would get burnt by my… sparkles," He cried and helped me up to my feet.

"It's okay, you didn't know-" I started. Suddenly, Stefan was by my side.

"What happened?" he growled.

"I thought that maybe he wouldn't sparkle if he used my daylight ring. I assumed that because it protected us from the sun it'd work on him too. I didn't realize that I would get burnt by the reflected light," I said. "Usually I don't start burning so fast. It's like his skin magnified it or something."

Stefan shook his head, "Of course it wouldn't work. The daylight rings only work on the person that the witch created it for. You can't borrow someone else's."

I facepalmed. "Completely forgot about that," I mumbled. "Then we could just ask Angela to make one for him then, right?"

"I don't know what the spell would be. Also, I'm pretty sure it's a complicated spell and Angela only just started using magic."

Edwards phone rang. Stefan and I focused in on their conversations when he picked up.

" _Hey, Edward? A whole lot of my stuff is missing,"_ Bella said. She didn't seem all that panicked but Edward did. He put the call on speaker.

"What's gone? Are you and Charlie alright?"

"Well, Charlie doesn't seem to have noticed someone get into the house. My pillow, that one gray sweatshirt, and maybe half of my laundry just disappeared. Charlie said he didn't do the laundry so it couldn't have been him."

"Maybe they stole them so they could use them in a locator spell," I suggested.

"Why would they need a locator spell? They know where she is. And even if they were keeping them for the future, they wouldn't need that many of her things," he countered.

Edward spoke, "Most likely they were taking them for her scent. Tracking her."

Bella seemed much more concerned now, "Tracking? Do you mean Victoria? Why would she need so much of my clothes? Including that red blouse that Alice just bought me."

"For her to need so much that she couldn't have been more discreet," Edward said. "There'd have to be a whole lot more vampires in this than just Victoria."


	7. Chapter 7

We figured that if the Cullens were going to be searching around town for hints to what Victoria, a psycho vamp on a revenge mission, we would need to get them some daylight rings. Angela had found a book that belonged to her great grandmother but it was in a language that, after several Google Translate attempts, we could not decode. It was awkward as hell when I texted Matt to send us pictures of Bonnie's grimoires. I felt bad asking him to go through her things since everyone had been avoiding doing so but since Bonnie had already translated the spells into English from the Latin-like witch language, it was our best chance of finding the daylight ring spell.

Angela struggled with the pronunciation, something that Bonnie had somehow figured out suspiciously quickly, but eventually, her chanting produced a fully working necklace for Alice. While Alice spun around in the sunlight, amazed by how normal her skin looked, Angela's face turned pale and blood dripped slowly from her nose.

So not to put her in danger with all the magic used for the spell, we had to choose which of the Cullens needed them the most. Tied with Alice, Edward was the most powerful in the family because of his gift so we decided he would be the next glitter-free vampire. Jasper couldn't go out in the day much anyways because of his uncontrolled blood lust and Rosalie and Emmett volunteered to search at night. Carlisle was supposed to get one too but Angela almost passed out after she charmed Edward's wrist cuff. Alice and Edward ended up being the only two with them because we didn't want Angela to pull a Bonnie and… die from overexertion.

They spent the day searching town for leads. But when they returned after a day of hunting down the vampire army, they came back empty-handed.

"I can't see them," Alice said.

"You mean they're invisible?" I asked. The idea of invisible vampires was terrifying.

"No, I mean I can't see them. They don't show up in my visions."

"Like werewolves?" I suggested.

She shook her head. "They aren't werewolves. We would have been able to pick up their scent. The only other species that can go undetected by my power is yours."

"You mean Victoria is turning an army of our type of vampires? Why would she do that?"

"When a vampire like us is turned, it takes three days for us to wake up. And after that, we are barely in control of ourselves let alone be controlled. Making an army of us would be inefficient. While we're stronger, an army of your type of vampires would be so much easier to make. Their only weakness would be the sun."

"How would they have gotten into the Swan house then?" Stefan asked. "They would've had to be invited in."

She shrugged. "Maybe Charlie let someone in the house. Or Victoria turned someone specifically for this. I don't know."

To ensure Bella and her dad's safety, Alice left to drop off some of Stefan's vervain at her house.

So that the new vampires wouldn't be able to use their teeth as a weapon against the Cullens, we figured that they needed to have vervain in their system. Turns out, they sell it on Amazon. I found it pretty weird that we hadn't thought of that before.  
Jasper used Rosalie's tools in the garage to make stakes and knives. I tried to help but the splinters bothered me; my skin healed too fast for me to pull them out without having to stab my fingers with a needle.

When Alice returned, she brought Bella with her. She explained that she had convinced Charlie to let Bella come over. Apparently, he really liked Alice.

Since Bella was over, we discussed training.

"From what I can tell, Edward's species of vampire is pretty much invincible against a human. But our kind, we are much easier to kill. If we are planning to fight them, we need all the help we can get. That's including Bella, " Stefan said.

Edward growled, "We are not going to have Bella fight. The werewolves can handle it."

Edward was starting to get on my nerves. His overprotective habit of forcing Bella to sit on the sidelines wasn't helping us at all.

I interjected, "No, Stefan is right. Bella won't be fighting in the front lines, but it would be too distracting if we have to guard her during the fight. She needs to learn to protect herself."

Bella nodded quickly in agreement.

"You mean we won't have anyone protecting her? I could stay with her," Edward said.

"You would still be near her in case things went wrong but you and Alice are our best chance of winning. We can't have you staying behind just because you don't think Bella can handle herself," I reasoned.

"Fine," Edward sighed. "As long as she's safe."

Thankfully, the Cullens had a very large backyard for us to train in. Bella seemed really excited as Edward had never let her fight before. We gave her a couple of wooden stakes and then had her fight Stefan.

"Don't you think I should be using something other than wood for this? What if I accidentally kill you?" she asked and then threw it across the yard where it fell meters short of Stefan.

"No offense Bella," he said while whooshing around her. "But I don't think you're fast enough to actually hurt me." She spun around and flung another stake at him which this time only missed him by a foot or two. He jumped to her and put his hands on her neck.

"And… you're dead. Don't wind up like that when you throw. It makes you too predictable."

Frustrated, Bella walked to the stakes she threw and picked them up. "This isn't fair! You're like a century and a half old! The vampires I'll be defending myself against aren't going to be as experienced as you. Can't I fight Caroline instead?"

I nodded my head furiously, getting bored of sitting. Stefan took my place on the lawn chair under the tree and I ran into the field. I easily dodged Bella's first throw and then ran behind her. She swung the stake at me and I stumbled backward, not expecting her to react so quickly. Stefan chuckled and I turned to glare at him. Then I felt something pierce my shoulder. Embedded in my flesh was the stake Bella had been holding. Stefan jumped to my side and I cried out in pain when he pulled the stake out.

"Holy crow, are you okay? I didn't realize I'd actually hit you."

My wound stung but it was already was closing up. "No, it's fine. I'm impressed actually. That was really good!"

She beamed. Stefan laughed. "Wow, Caroline. You just lost to a human!" I rolled my eyes.

"You distracted me!" I accused him. "Why don't you fight me yourself?"

He grinned confidently and motioned for Bella to sit down. He walked over to me and bowed with his hands clasped in front of him, mocking me. I threw my stake with all my might but he disappeared. I turned around, used to this strategy, but instead of behind me, he was at my side. He swung at me and I jumped over him. I got down and swept my leg under him, knocking him off balance. He got up quicker than I did and took advantage of the time I took standing up. When the stake came flying at me, I rolled over and barely avoided it. I picked it up from beside me and swung it at his legs. When he jumped to the side, I flung myself at him and pinned him against the tree with my elbow at his neck, my fangs bared. He tried to escape but I pushed myself against him, trapping him between me and the tree. I pushed the blunt side of the stake against his chest, careful not to hurt him. "I win!" I sang and retracted my fangs to smile.

"Yeah, good job," he said breathlessly. He looked down at me and raised his eyebrows; my knee was between his legs and our faces were inches apart. "Wanna let me go now?" I stepped back and casually brushed myself off, feeling awkward about the method I used to win.

Bella was impressed. "You guys were so fast! I could barely keep track of you!" I had forgotten she was there. I stole a glance at Stefan, who was looking more flustered than I had ever seen him. The sun was setting and we all headed inside to avoid any of Victoria's vampires who would take advantage of the dark.


	8. Chapter 8

"I think that I've gotten it figured out," spoke Stefan from behind me, making me jump. I was preparing breakfast again with Edward and Bella.

"Good morning to you too," I mumbled. "Got what figured out?"

"The reason that I attacked Bella in the first place, I'm sorry about that by the way, was that I figured there was no way that there were any remain doppelgangers. That's because the spell required Elena and me to be the last pair of doppelgangers because they needed to kill us for the spell," he explained.

"Then how did they not sense Edward and Bella?" I asked.

"I was getting to that. They didn't just need to kill us, they specifically needed our blood. Edward doesn't even have blood. I mean we say that we are dead but he is literally dead. His heart doesn't even beat."

Edward nodded. "But then what about Bella? As far as I can tell, she's alive." he stared pointedly at her neck.

"Well, I'm just guessing that they can't sense her because no one can," he said.

We all stared at him, trying to take in what he had said. The only one who seemed to understand what he was saying was Edward.

Bella was the first one to speak, "What do you mean?"

"No one can sense you because your mind is immune to magic," he said confidently.

He met Bella's eyes, " _Jump."_ Bella awkwardly set down her plate and jumped while staring at him like he was insane. "I'm trying to prove a point. Don't actually jump.  _Jump_ ," he repeated. She stood there. Unlike humans on vervain, her eyes didn't even dilate. The attempted controlling seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever.

"You see? She is immune to compulsion as well as mind reading," he explained. "But I'm pretty sure that it only has to do with her thoughts since Alice is still able to see her in her visions and Jasper can manipulate her emotions. So if a witch were to do magic on her, she would be just as vulnerable as the rest of us."

I could sense that the Cullens were starting to feel uncomfortable. This was our fifth day staying with them and we still hadn't made it clear when we would be leaving. While Edward reassured me that they enjoyed our visit, I still felt that we were intruding.

To give our hosts some space, Stefan and I took off to walk around town. Turns out, there's really not much to do in Forks. Because we got bored quickly, we found ourselves wandering out of town to the forest.

Walking through the woods was more fun than I expected. I quickly found myself enjoying the quiet; everything was silent except for the birds and the rushing sound of the river to our left.

"This is pretty unusual," Stefan said, furrowing his brow.

"What is?" I asked nervously, looking around hoping that he hadn't seen something dangerous.

"I've never seen you go this long without talking." He said. I scowled at him.

"I don't have much to say right now. Besides, this is nice."

"What is?"

"We aren't arguing or trying to prove anything. Just walking." He held my hand as I stepped over a log. "Where are we trying to go anyways?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea." The path was getting harder to maneuver so we went downhill to walk alongside the river. When my shoe got caught on one of the rocks, I started falling towards the water. Stefan grabbed me by my waist right before I fell in and pulled me back up. Even for a vampire, his reflexes are incredibly good. I would have let me fall in.

"You good?" he said.

"Yeah. Thanks. I really didn't want to get this outfit wet. Rosalie lent it all to me and she would probably rip me to shreds if I ruined it," I rambled, trying to hide my embarrassment. I rubbed my neck sheepishly. But instead of feeling Rosalie's scarf there, my hand met my bare neck. Fast and full of rocks, the river was carrying it away. Before Stefan could stop me, I rushed to it and leaned over. As I got a grip on the scarf, I lost my balance and fell face first into the water with a splash. It was a good thing that I was a vampire; I wasn't immediately swept away. I panicked when my head went underwater but Stefan grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me out of the river.

"Th-thanks," I whispered, coughing up some water.

"Good job saving Rosalie's outfit," he teased. I looked down at the soaked sweater and facepalmed. It was a particularly thicker sweater so it held a lot of water. I didn't get cold anymore but I was still bothered by being soaked. Stefan noticed my discomfort. "Here, take my shirt," he offered. I hesitated.

"Isn't that kind of…" I faltered, not knowing how to say 'inappropriate' without sounding like a twelve-year-old.

He pulled off his shirt. "I'm wearing a tank top under this, Caroline. Don't get too excited." I rolled my eyes and he handed it to me.

"What a gentleman." I muttered and handed the sweater and scarf to him to hold while I swapped clothes "Don't look." He turned around and I changed into his shirt. It was a couple of sizes too big but it was more comfortable than the soaked sweater.

He turned around once I finished swapping shirts. "Looks good."

"Thanks. I'm glad I don't have to worry about getting my hair wet now. Having my hair this short is nice." He handed the clothes back to me but where he had been holding them against his chest the water had soaked through his shirt making it practically see through.

"Seeing as you've fallen twice now, we'd probably be safer over there." Stefan pointed to the other side where there seemed to be fewer rocks and a clearer path. Easily, he jumped across and then gestured for me to join him. I leaped with all my might but still barely made it. This time, I caught myself before I fell backward. I smiled proudly.

Out of the bushes, a giant black wolf jumped onto Stefan. It roared and sunk its teeth into his shoulder as he struggled underneath it. Somehow, it was so strong that my attempts to pull it off of him didn't do anything; it had to be a werewolf. But when Stefan's blood started to flow from his wound, the wolf jumped back as if he was surprised.

"Sam!" I heard someone yell from the behind us. The kid, who looked about sixteen, threw some clothes at the wolf who snarled and took them in his mouth and headed back into the forest.

"I'm so sorry about that," he said quickly. "Carlisle told me that the two of you were here and I was trying to find Sam to tell him. My name is Seth by the way." We shook hands and Sam returned wearing the clothes that Seth had given him

"The two of them? You mean that's not Edward?" Sam asked. I shook my head.

"Apparently they just look exactly the same," Seth explained. "Carlisle says that they're going to help us fight Victoria. They're a different species of vampires."

"'Going to help us fight Victoria'? Are you crazy? We made a deal with the Cullens that they could stay as long as they didn't cross the treaty line. We can't have other vampires running around," Sam said angrily.

"We weren't doing anything wrong!" I tried to defend myself.

"It doesn't matter. I need to talk to Carlisle but you people weren't part of the agreement."

Stefan and I were sent back across the river and we headed for the Cullen's house. Carlisle talked to Sam, the leader of the Quileute pack, on the phone and came to the decision that we would be allowed to stay temporarily as we didn't cross the border. But because other vampires haven't been allowed here since 1936 when they made the treaty, the pack rescinded their offer to fight along with us against Victoria's army.

While Carlisle continued to reason with him, I pulled Stefan into the living room.

"We have to go to New Orleans," I urged.

"Why? We're supposed to stay here and help them when Victoria comes. Anyways, what's in New Orleans?"

I stared at him. "Klaus is in New Orleans."

"Why do you want to see Klaus?"

"Stefan! Did you not just get bitten by a werewolf?" I yelled, my voice breaking. "We have to get you his blood!" I thought back to when Tyler bit me. The hallucinations were traumatizing and had Klaus not fed me his blood it would have gotten much worse. I didn't want Stefan to go through that and if we didn't head to New Orleans, well, he would die.

He turned around and pulled the strap of his sleeveless shirt down to reveal that the wound had healed completely. "I'm fine. Carlisle said that the werewolves around here are completely different from the ones we've seen. They don't have venom. They don't even phase with the moon."

I sighed in relief and sat down on the couch. "Thank god." He sat down next to me and put his arm around me and ran it down my back to comfort me. "Stefan, can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Edward and Bella are such a perfect couple. They're so happy together." I stopped, not knowing how to phrase my question. "Doesn't it bother you that, you know, you aren't with another döppelganger?"

"You mean Elena."

"I guess. You don't miss her?"

"I'm not going to pretend that I didn't love her. But I don't miss her. We were together such a long time ago and I respect her choice to pick Damon," he said. I didn't feel like reminding him that Damon was dead and Elena was single now.

"Maybe you'll find another döppelganger one day. Third time's the charm," I joked. He simply shrugged.


	9. Chapter 9

Earlier, Alice confirmed the time of Victoria's arrival: she'd be here tomorrow night. Assuming that they didn't have a witch willing to spell daylight rings for an entire army of vampires, they would be forced to attack at night. Because of the imminent threat, everyone was suddenly making use of the short time we had. Stefan and Jasper were becoming friends; I'd overheard them reminiscing about the civil war era together. Jasper, like Damon, had been a Confederate soldier which intrigued Stefan. I was glad that he had someone to talk to. Tyler, Elena, Bonnie, and I, the supernaturals of Mystic Falls, hadn't lived nearly as long as Stefan and Damon and now that Damon was gone Stefan had no one to talk about the old days with.

If it weren't for the upcoming war, I could see myself becoming close friends with Alice or Bella. Alice's fashion sense was to die for and Bella was just refreshing to be around since she wasn't as serious as Elena or as terrifying as Katherine.

"Why is Rosalie so cold to Bella, if you don't mind me asking?" I had brought up the subject while we made breakfast together. Edward and Bella were out in their secret meadow that they apparently had so they weren't in the kitchen with me today.

"She's just jealous," Emmett said.

"Jealous?" I asked incredulously while taking a chili pepper jar from his hands before he added it to the eggs. "Why?"

"Bella's human and she's choosing to become a vampire. Rosalie is upset that she didn't have that choice," he explained and grabbed a black pepper shaker, correcting his mistake.

I turned my head to the side. "Why would Bella choose to turn? No one wants that."

"She wants to live forever with Edward. There's not much she can do to do that other than turning so I guess it makes sense. Rosalie wanted a family and to grow old but unfortunately, infertility is a side effect of dying. Bella gets to choose between a life and love and Rosalie thinks that she's choosing wrong." While he gave his explanation, he forgot about the eggs he had still sitting on the stove. I ran to his side and took the sizzling pan from his grasp and moved it off of the heat.

"Then why hasn't she turned yet?" As much as I tried to salvage the eggs, they were hopelessly burnt. I scraped them into the trash and Emmett took two more out of the fridge to try again.

"She would have to give up the family she has now if she turned. Months after we turn we're like mosquitos, feeding off of everything that moves. Actually, that's probably not the best analogy, it just sounds good for some reason. Well, our eyes change color and our skin is too pale for us to pass as human to those who already knew us. If she was to turn now, she would be forced to somehow never see her parents or her friends again whether that's by faking her death or by completely ghosting everyone."

"That's awful. I see why Rosalie wouldn't want her to change. Oh, don't do that!" I yelled as he tried to flip the egg on the pan like one would flip a pancake by tossing it in the air. His reflexes were good but not good enough to catch all the pieces of the scrambled egg flying around the kitchen. It was his best attempt yet so he proudly pushed it onto a plate while I swept up the mess. "When I turned, I was able to fake it for a pretty long time before my mom found out," I told him. I placed the jam covered toast on the plate next to the "scrambled eggs" and gave him a high five.

It was midnight and Bella and Edward had been arguing about who knows what in his room and for their privacy, I chose not to listen in for once. But because they were there and Alice and Jasper were out hunting, Stefan was downstairs in the living room while I was alone in Alice's room. Her room was filled with pictures of the Cullens and Bella all having fun together. All these memories lined the walls of her bedroom and I couldn't help but miss my friends that I had my own memories with.

It's not that I don't like Forks. I do. But I still don't know why we're even here. Stefan left Mystic Falls to start a new life away from the supernatural and we somehow ended up allies with a bunch of vampires. It's barely our battle to fight and had Edward and Bella not looked like Stefan and Elena I would have left a long time ago.

Left to where? I thought. Because of the travelers' magic border around our town, I really wasn't welcome there. And the entire friend group was split up and I'd spent most of my summer with either my mom or Alaric trying to fix Mystic Falls. Elena was at Whitmore, partying with the other freshmen and not remembering the love of her life. Bonnie and Damon are dead. Matt and Jeremy were living inside of the border and Tyler's busy trying not to become a werewolf. That left Stefan, I guess.

I wasn't falling asleep anytime soon. I focused on the sounds from downstairs and Stefan's breathing told me that he wasn't asleep yet either. So not to disturb Bella and Edward, I carefully tiptoed past their room and down the stairs. "I can't sleep," I said quietly to Stefan.

"Me neither. Sit down if you want," he said, moving over to share the couch. I threw myself onto the couch next to him and pulled a pillow onto my lap.

"I'm nervous about tomorrow," I said. "I mean, you've seen the news, there have been so many 'murders' in Seattle that her army must be huge. We only have the two of us, Angela, and the- how many Cullens are there again?"

"Six."

"Right. The six of them and Bella. Do you think we really stand a chance?"

He shrugged. "The Cullens are stronger than Victoria's army. Since they can't be staked, they're almost as indestructible as the Originals. And I have a hundred fifty years on these vampires. You're a great fighter yourself, you could beat me."

"You let me win," I mumbled.

"I wish," he said. "You're actually pretty good. I want a rematch at some point." He lightly nudged me with his shoulder but because of my position on my knees, I lost my balance for a second. I playfully pushed him back and we both laughed when he leaned on my side until I fell over again. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while.

I sighed. "What are we doing here, Stefan?"

"What do you mean?"

"If we somehow do beat Victoria, what do we do next?" I looked at him but he still was staring down at his lap.

"Damon is still dead, Caroline. I'm not going back."

I frowned. "But what about Elena? Or my mom? They're still there."

"You still need them. I'm not in love with Elena anymore. I'm going to start over." he said. I felt tears forming in my eyes.

"Why did you come here in the first place? There are so many places you could've gone and you came here," I demanded.

"I came to the west coast for the Gemini Coven."

"I don't believe you," I accused him, feeling my face growing warmer. "The Gemini are in Oregon, even a quick stop in Washington wouldn't be all the way north in the peninsula. You came to Forks specifically, the only other place with the doppelgängers and vampires. And there are vampires all over the continent but you somehow ran into another race that somehow our vampires didn't know existed."

"You haven't figured it out yet?" he snapped. "Edward is dead. He doesn't have any blood."

"What does that have to do with why you came here?"

"The magic part of the doppelgängers is the blood. Klaus was bound by the blood of Tatia, unbound by Elena's. By becoming a vampire and having no more blood, Edward ceased to be a doppelgänger, other than his looks of course."

"I still don't see how it's connected."

"He's not really a doppelgänger. Meaning that his and Bella's relationship is entirely by chance, not fate. Now that I'm no longer in love with Elena, the universe-prophecy thing basically pulled me to Forks because I'm supposed to be with Bella," he said, finally meeting my eyes.

"Oh," was all I could say.

"I don't love Bella, obviously. But evidently, no matter how hard I try I always end up wandering my way to another doppelgänger. I might as well give up trying to avoid it. I can start a new life somewhere else and eventually, another doppelgänger will come along. As you said, the third time's the charm."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

I'm getting better at hiding my thoughts. Reciting my  _Miss Mystic_ speech was a good way to keep my mind off of things. Then again, it probably doesn't matter since Edward already heard everything there was to hear last night.

When Edward and Bella came downstairs, they were engaged. On her left hand was a ring, covered in a hundred little diamonds. Stefan and I congratulated her politely while Alice spun her around excitedly. The way the ring reflected light in all directions reminded me of the Cullens' skin. The wink Edward gave me when I thought that told me that that's what he was going for.

After my talk with Stefan the night before, I had silently removed myself from the living room and slept by myself in Alice's room. Instead of keeping myself up thinking, I had slept right away. It didn't feel great, but I needed the sleep since we wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

We were too busy to waste any more time. Instead of eggs like I had had for the last couple of days, my breakfast was a slice of toast and a bag of blood. We spent the rest of the day making last minute preparations and Angela came over to work on her spells. Jasper and Stefan were sharpening more stakes, Rosalie and Alice put some the vervain we had ordered in little bags for each of us, and Angela showed Bella and I the spells she had deciphered from her ancestors' grimoire.

"I don't really know what this is called, but I figured out how to disable a supernatural," Angela said proudly.

"What do you mean?" I asked her. I wouldn't know what it's called either; there were so many spells the witches had that they were hard to keep track of. She looked at me nervously.

"I'm not really sure how to show you without demonstrating it. I'll just do it on you," she said. I was about to object when I felt my head start to explode. Just like how Bonnie did it, it felt like my blood vessels were popping over and over again. If I was human it definitely would kill me. I yelled in pain and dropped to the floor and Angela quickly put her hand down.

"Caroline!" Bella shouted. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled. "That was pretty good, Angela. But just describe it next time." I winced as I stood up.

"I didn't realize that it would hurt you so much," she said sheepishly.

Angela had spent the last couple of days training herself. Because of all the practicing she'd been doing, she declared that she was ready to make more daylight rings for the rest of the Cullens. We were running out of time as Victoria was supposed to arrive tonight but it was now or never. The Cullens sat with Angela in the living room and one by one had rings created for them. But since none of us knew how to get lapis lazuli onto rings or bracelets, and we had simply put a stone inside of Alice's necklace and sewed another into Edward's cuff, we had to make do by having Angela enchant the stones and have the Cullens keep them in their pockets.

I steeped the vervain in some hot water for the Cullens, Bella, and Angela. It wasn't much since none of them could be compelled anyways, but at least now they couldn't be bitten. Though the water occasionally splashed and burned me with the vervain, it was something to distract myself with.

"I heard your conversation with Stefan last night. That was pretty rough," Emmett said as he entered the kitchen.

"What do you mean? It's not a big deal," I said.

"You don't have to lie about it. You can't seriously pretend that you don't care at all about what Stefan said. I mean that whole dollepganger thing is a bummer."

"Doppelgänger. And no, I don't care about what he said."

"Come on, what's not to like about Stefan? He's hot," he grimaced as he realized he was pretty much talking about his brother. "Sort of. I mean he doesn't look like a sparkling snowman like Edward. And he seems really caring, from what I can see. Is the Bella-Elena prophecy the only reason that you're acting like it doesn't matter?"

I sighed. "He left us all in Mystic Falls. It's not like he's completely perfect."

"You still came all the way here to find him."

I stopped stirring the already finished tea. Why  _did_ I follow him? "I only came here because Enzo wasn't going to. Someone had to fetch him."

"Okay, no clue who Enzo is. That's an awful name by the way. But you still stayed here after all this. You're still here even after Stefan just said he's not coming back because of Damion."

"It's Damon."

"My point still stands. You care about him."

"So what?" I threw my head back in frustration. "I've cared about a lot of people. You didn't know me back in Mystic Falls. I've dated pretty much every guy in town."

"Including Damion? Oh and what about the guy you were talking to on the phone yesterday? Matt?" he asked. I nodded awkwardly. "Dang. But did you care about them enough that you'd chase him to Washington?" I didn't respond. "Right. So this is different."

"It doesn't matter though," I breathed in sharply and started coughing from the fumes coming out of the vervain tea. Emmett offered me a glass of water and I gulped it down. "He's not meant for me and I'm not meant for him because of that stupid doppelgänger thing." I was starting to despise that word. I'd heard it enough in the last couple of years that I could do with never hearing it again.

"There's no prophecy saying that Rose and I are supposed to be together and I still love her."

"There's no prophecy saying you shouldn't," I pointed out.

"True. What about Elena and Da...mon? She cares about him a lot, right?"

I mumbled, "Their relationship was doomed even before he died. I still don't see why she chose him over Stefan. Stefan's kind and caring and, well, not Damon."

"It doesn't matter if Stefan's a better person. She cares for Damon."

"There's no way she cared for him that much." I was getting annoyed at how unrelated this was.

"She cared enough to erase her memories of him because losing him was just that painful so he has to have some good qualities. Yes, I heard you telling Stefan about that, sorry," he apologized. "But that just proves that the doppelgängers can fall for other people."

I wanted to argue I couldn't think of a response. He was right. "You'll figure it out eventually. I gotta go, Angela finished sun blocking Rosalie so it's my turn." I thanked him quietly and he left the kitchen. As I poured the vervain tea into mugs for the Cullens, the water splashed out of the mug and onto my arm. I hissed and set the pot down. I watched the burn on my forearm fade away and realized that Stefan wasn't by my side. He hadn't been listening. I tried again to pour the tea into the nine mugs and succeeded without much splashing. I called for the rest of the house to come drink and they filed into the kitchen. All of the Cullens seemed to have a hard time stomaching the tea but Angela and Bella seemed to like the taste.

It was eight o'clock when all of us took the cars to where Alice had seen Victoria decide to go. The sun was already starting to set when we arrived. Jasper checked that all of us had stakes on us; we had two each. He told us the plan; Angela and Bella would be in the center of the field where she could protect her, Edward and Jasper would fight Victoria, and the rest of us would fend off the army. Watching the four couples whisper nervously to each other, it suddenly dawned on me the danger the eleven of us were in. Emmett's advice wouldn't have mattered at all if I died tonight.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**This chapter has violence in it.**

One of the most stressful things is waiting. For hours after the sunset, we all paced back and forth, hoping that the army would arrive and dreading it at the same time. Even without the power to read minds or feel everyone's emotions I could sense the lingering anxiety in the area. At midnight, Bella fell asleep and Stefan soon followed. I stayed alert, too afraid to be caught off guard but gave in to my exhaustion an hour later and curled up underneath a tree at the edge of the field.

I was awoken by Stefan shaking me awake. "What is it…" I moaned, rubbing my eyes and picking up my phone to read the time; it was only half past five in the morning and the sky was still black. He placed a finger on my lips to silence me and gestured towards Alice. Her expression was blank and Edward was staring at her, reading her mind as she entered a vision. All of us were tense and the minutes we spent waiting for her to speak felt like hours.

"They're here," she said, only loud enough that a vampire could hear. Edward growled and we all braced ourselves. A young girl, sixteen at most, with dark brown hair and pale skin crept out from behind a tree. Her eyes were full of fear and her stance was that of one who was ready to run away. Her frame was small and it was obvious that she had no advantage over us physically. We all stayed still. Five more followed behind her, all of them staring at us as, waiting to see if we would make the first move.

 _That's it?_  I thought. We had faced worse enemies before. But as my uneasiness began to subside, more trickled out from the trees to stand with them. They were all young, in their teens or early twenties, and wore casual clothes stained in dry blood. By the unsteady way they walked and the way that the veins in their faces kept pressing against their skin, I could assume that the dried blood belonged to the people they killed to turn.

By the time that the flow of vampires had stopped there were at least thirty, maybe forty, of them standing there. None of them fit the description of Victoria that Bella had shared with me; long, red, curly hair and white skin. Though I knew that we were much more experienced, the armies size just standing there staring at us was intimidating.

What was more intimidating was when they started sprinting. The Cullens turned outwards to face the crowd of them that was quickly surrounding us. Stefan growled when one man came too close and pushed me behind him. The man swung at us, attacking before any of the others in his group and Stefan shoved him aside. When he growled and charged at him again, Stefan snapped his neck with ease, allowing me to stake him in the heart. "I know you can handle yourself," Stefan said as he ran after another one nearby. I nodded back at him and braced myself.

When I looked to my left, I saw Emmett fighting two vampires at once. While he was much stronger than them, it was clear that he was outnumbered. As one of them, fangs bared, crouched down to jump onto him, I threw one of my stakes as hard as I could. It missed her heart and instead embedded itself in her neck which, while not killing her, gave Emmett the chance to pull the stake out and decapitate the girl. He grinned as he tossed her head at the other girl he'd been fighting who, upon catching it, froze in shock. He drove the weapon through her chest before she could recover. "Thanks, Care Bear!" he shouted at me while pulling his stake from the corpse and tossing it back to me.

"No problem!" I shouted back. A man jumped from behind a tree at me. I shoved my hand into his chest and pulled out his heart before he could do anything. I dropped it as fast as I could; something about the way they were so warm and squishy made me squeamish. I sighed as I realized that I had forgotten to change shirts before coming here; I had just stained the blouse I had arrived in Forks with. At least I hadn't borrowed this one. "Wait, did you just call me 'Care Bear'? I hate that, Emmett!" I groaned. He laughed at me and wooshed away to help Rosalie. Care Bear. Of course, he's going to call me Care Bear.

The girl I had seen earlier, the small one with the brown hair, crept up to me. Instead of jumping straight at me like the others, her movements were tentative and unsure. "Come on! Fight me!" I taunted, smiling at her. She tried to flash behind me but I knew what she was doing. I spun around and shoved her to the ground. I pulled out the stake that was still bloody from the last kill and brought it up behind my head to stab her.

"Stop! Please!" she begged, her voice shaking. "I don't want to die." I hesitated. She looked absolutely frightened. It didn't matter though, she was a threat and she was only going to hurt us. But then I realized that so was I when Damon decided I had to die the night I was turned. To keep her from getting away, I pounced on her and pinned her down. Instead of staking her, I grabbed her head and settled for snapping her neck. It would keep her "dead" long enough that someone else could deal with her.

In the middle of the field, I observed Angela's unique way of fighting. When any of them would come close, she would cast an aneurysm spell which left them rolling around clutching their heads. Then, she would light them on fire. It was a peculiar sight. Most powerful witches always looked more… dignified. Angela was standing there flailing her arms all over the place but somehow it worked. It was when she was overwhelmed by two of them at the same time that she slipped up. One of them distracted her while the other one jumped onto Bella, digging his teeth into her shoulder. She cried out and I ran past everyone to get to her. I bit my wrist and forced it to her mouth. The vampire blood in her system made the wound close up quickly and I was relieved that I had gotten to her before she lost consciousness. My wrist was already healing but I rolled up my sleeve anyway. Everyone but Angela seemed to be too busy to notice that Bella had been attacked.

We were decimating the army. Only about ten remained and even those didn't look like they were going to last much longer. The ground was littered with hearts and heads and it made me wonder how the police were ever going to be able to explain this.

Just as we were finishing off the last of them, Victoria emerged from the trees. By her side was a smug blonde haired boy and close behind were another twenty or so. "You have  _got_  to be kidding me," Emmett yelled, throwing the heart he was holding on the ground. "Are we playing Plants versus Zombies? How many of them are there?" Victoria ignored him. Her presence was terrifying; she signaled to the vampires to attack while maintaining eye contact with Edward at the same time. Somehow, she could tell the difference between him and Stefan. Probably the skin tone.

This second round of vampires was much stronger than the first that we faced. I watched Alice for the first time since the fight started. Like Edward, she had a major advantage while fighting. No matter what the other person did, they couldn't surprise her. The girl that attacked her was fast, even for a vampire, I had a hard time keeping track of her. But it didn't matter how quickly she got behind Alice, you can't sneak up on a vampire that can see the future. Alice jumped and did a backflip, landed on her shoulders, and ripped her head off. I stared in awe; we definitely needed her on our cheer team.

A stake hit me while I was distracted. I coughed and blood flew from my mouth. I looked down to see that it sticking out of the right side of my chest where it had punctured my lung. I fell to my knees. I should have learned my lesson when Bella did the same thing to me. A teenage boy, who I guess threw the stake, was walking towards me. Midstep, his body started to desiccate and he fell forwards. A stake had entered the side of his chest so fast that it came out the other side. "Caroline," Stefan said as he ran to me. He pulled the stake out of my chest and I took a deep breath, finally being able to breathe normally again. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's healing already," I smiled at him. He sighed and pulled me into his arms.

"I thought you were going to-" he stopped. Never before had I seen him looking so scared.

"I'm fine, Stefan. We can't just stay here," I said, getting to my feet. He was visibly shaking with worry. I pulled him up and saw that in the minutes we wasted, Victoria was close to Bella. Jasper was currently fighting a couple of vampires ganging up on him so Edward was left with Victoria and the blonde boy with Angela. Angela raised her arm and the kid collapsed screaming.

" _Inscendia_!" she shouted at him. Unfortunately, that type of vampire wasn't nearly as flammable. His hair, however, was. It burst into flames and his screams got even louder. I couldn't help but laugh. But because the fire alone wasn't going to kill him, Angela was stuck having to cast the aneurysm spell continuously to keep him down. With Victoria distracted by the sight, I took the opportunity to try to kill her. I wooshed my way over there but crossed between Angela and the boy. The spell transferred to me for just a second, but it was enough to knock me off my feet.

Angela put her hand down immediately. Edward ran to my side to check on me. "No!" I shrieked at him. "Edward don't! I'm fine!" He stopped and turned back to Victoria but it was too late. She had used the distraction to get past him. The boy grabbed Angela and held her hands behind her back so that she couldn't cast any spells. By the time I processed what happened, she had her hands on Bella's head.

"If anyone moves, she dies."

Everyone was still, including Victoria's vampires. It wasn't until a few minutes passed and the sun started to rise that they finally retreated to below the trees to avoid being burnt. The only ones who remained were Victoria and the boy who she must have turned with her venom.

Edward looked like he was dying inside, Bella was trying to be brave for him, the rest of the Cullens were staring at Edward, and Angela was staring at Bella, deep in thought. Edward's expression turned from worried to shocked in an instant at something that she thought. He turned his head ever so slightly to look pointedly at my wrist. My wrist. What was important about my wrist?

Oh.

"Do it," I breathed. It was so quiet in the field that everyone, even without vampire hearing could hear me.

"Angela, no!" Edward screamed. She muttered an incantation.

The Cullen's daylight rings were inactivated, and just like that day in the kitchen, the skin of the seven of them reflected light in every direction. The vampires that had been hiding under the trees simultaneously burst into flames. Screams echoed from all around us as the entire army burned. The young brunette I had faced earlier, who had finally woken up from her snapped neck induced sleep, turned to ashes. I didn't even know her name.

And with a crunch of her neck, Bella's fell limp at Victoria's feet.


	12. Chapter 12

“How could you do this?” Edward roared. Victoria had disappeared right away after snapping Bella’s neck, knowing she was outnumbered. The boy she arrived with didn’t move fast enough and Edward had torn him to bits. It was terrifying to watch. The only way to kill a pale vampire, which I have started calling them, was to rip them apart and set the pieces on fire. After Edward tore him to pieces, Angela had performed another inscendia. “We could’ve distracted her and gotten Bella! Now she’s dead!”

“There was nothing we could’ve done. Even if Angela had tried to hurt her from far away, she would’ve still been able to break Bella’s neck. At least this way, she doesn’t have an army,” I said, trying to calm him down.

“We would’ve figured out something. All this time I have spent protecting Bella just for her to die to kill a bunch of vampires that we could’ve killed anyways.”

“She’s not dead. She had my blood from when I healed her earlier,” I explained. I knew that he already knew that from reading my mind but he didn’t seem to understand it. Everyone else sighed in relief and I remembered that Angela and Edward were the only ones who knew that Bella was in transition. They must have thought I let her die.

“Same thing!”

Stefan spoke, “There’s nothing that we can do about it now. Our only option is to wait for her to wake up and see if she decides to drink or not.” Edward looked over at Bella miserably; she was still lying there, her skin pale and her neck at an odd angle. He tried to adjust her head to a more natural position but the clicking of her bones when they moved made him flinch away from her body.

I felt awful about the whole situation but I knew there was nothing else we could’ve done. While the Cullens huddled around Edward and Bella, I separated myself from them to look through the remains of the deceased vampires. It was gruesome; there were desiccated corpses all around. I was glad that the girl I chose to spare had burnt so that I wouldn’t have to see her body.

“You did the right thing,” Stefan said. He too had distanced himself from the group. Angela was walking around, burning the corpses and organs she came across.

“You think so?” I was starting to regret my decision at this point. Just like me, Bella didn’t have a choice on whether she’d become a vampire or not.

“I do. It was a good idea to burn the entire army at once.”

“That was Angela’s idea, not mine,” I pointed out. I kicked a heart out of my way as we walked.

“Still. Edward’s upset because he wanted Bella to stay human but he’ll forgive you,” he said. We walked together, occasionally stepping over bodies.

“Thanks for saving me by the way.”

“No problem.”

“You seemed really scared.”

He shrugged but I could tell he was just trying to act brave. “It would’ve sucked if you died. I don’t know anyone else here.”

“That’s true.” I thought about his frightened face and how he was trembling. He had looked legitimately terrified of losing me. It’s flattering to know you’d be missed.

“You know, I admire you,” he said. My heart skipped a beat.

“Why?”

“I saw you with that girl earlier. You let her live.” He picked up a handful of the ashes lying on the ground. We were passing by the spot where Bree had burned and I could feel my eyes tearing up as I thought about how she had to die.

“I was being weak.”

He shook his head and dropped the ashes into the wind. “You were being human. Any of the rest of us would’ve killed her on the spot but you didn’t.”

“What does that prove?” I asked. I still couldn’t see why it was relevant.

“That you’re good,” he said as he smiled sadly at me. “Being a vampire has changed everyone else into people that have done so many horrible things that they can’t help but hate themselves. Even Elena has turned off her humanity and killed people. Seeing you spare her life just showed that you’re not lost.”

I sighed. “I’m only that way because I’m a vampire now. As a human I was so annoying and you know it.”

“When we change, who we already are is heightened. For me, I became a ripper, out of control and I killed so many people. Before I changed I was already self-conscious, confused about my own actions and it just got worse.” The regret on his face broke my heart to see. “But instead of your bad qualities getting magnified, you being this caring, amazing person. That just shows that the good’s always been there.”

Shocked, I asked, “You think I’m amazing?” I was embarrassed as soon as the words came out of my mouth.

He grinned. “Yeah, you’re pretty great.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Something about what he had said didn’t settle right with me. We kept walking but I broke the silence again. “When you said that I’m not lost, did you mean that you are?”

He frowned. “I guess so.”

“You’re not though. When was the last time you killed someone with your humanity on?”

“Fifteen minutes ago,” he said simply.

“Okay, I probably shouldn’t have asked that. What I’m trying to say is that you don’t do things just to be bad. Every time you’ve killed someone it was because your humanity was off or out of self-defense. You aren’t like- I mean you don’t,” I stuttered, losing my train of thought.

“I’m not like Damon? The only difference between him and me is that he’s dead,” he said bitterly.

“That’s a huge difference. His mistakes are permanent because he’s dead. You have an eternity to fix yours,” I reasoned. I knew that it would be insensitive to point out how bad Damon had been so I decided not to compare them. He stayed silent but I could tell that he was considering what I had said.

“Stefan! Caroline!” Emmett called out to us. “We’re heading home.” They were packing everything into the cars and Edward carefully carried Bella into the back of his. Angela had finished burning all the remains and most of the ashes had already been scattered by the wind.

\-----

When we got home, Edward laid Bella down on the couch. He stayed by her side, staring at her pale face, waiting for her to wake up. Angela’s mom came to pick her up and I realized that she was the only one with two alive parents. It was quiet as everyone headed upstairs to change out of their bloodstained clothes. After I took a shower, I sat on the couch opposite Bella. I could see that the color was already returning to her face and her neck was almost back to normal. Emmett came and sat down next to me. “You know, I’m glad you turned her.”

“I know. The army was defeated because of that,” I responded.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m glad you changed her and I don’t mean because it was a necessary sacrifice. I was going to ask you to change her anyway.” He put his hand on her forehead and smiled when he felt that it was warm.

“Really? Why?”

He pointed to her rosy cheeks. “Because this way, she’s still alive. Rosalie and I agreed that this was a good compromise. Immortality without being a literal corpse.”

I tilted my head. “Did Edward know this?”

“Of course not,” Emmett said as if the question was silly. “He wanted her to stay human.”

“Then why?” I didn’t think Emmett was one to go against his brother’s wishes.

“Because I respect Bella. She was making a bad decision by wanting to become a vampire but Edward needs to realize that she can choose for herself.”

“That makes sense.”

“Also, now I get to arm wrestle her.” He grinned and I laughed at him. Suddenly, Bella sat up, breathing hard.

 


	13. Chapter 13

"What's happening?" Bella asked, rubbing her neck. I cringed as she cracked it to the side.

"Welcome back, Zombella!" Emmett yelled at her excitedly.

"What?"

"'Bloody Bella'?"

"What?"

"'Isavampire!' It's like Isabella and 'is a vampire' you know? Actually, that one's not very-" He was cut off by Edward, who nearly fell down the stairs trying to get to us.

"Is she okay?" he asked. "How is she?" He seemed really concerned.

"Oh my god! She's awake!" Alice screamed as she ran with Jasper into the living room. Rosalie didn't look as excited as the rest of them when she came downstairs but she did look curious.

Carlisle joined us and asked, "How are you doing, Bella?" Esme smiled at her.

"Are you okay?" asked Rosalie.

"I'm so sorry about this," said Edward. Now, the only one missing was Stefan, but I could hear the shower running so I assumed he was busy.

"Guys! Can you be quiet?" Bella yelled. "My head hurts and I can't listen to all of you at the same time." She put her hand on her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. We mumbled our apologies and filed out, leaving her alone with Edward. After ten minutes, everyone left to go hunting and Carlisle left for work to fetch some blood bags since our supply was getting low. I probably should have left and given them some privacy but I wanted to know what was going on. Besides, Edward has heard my every thought for a week now, there's no way he's going to judge me for eavesdropping this one time.

Of course, it's weird to stand outside of the door, especially since I can hear them across the house anyway. But when I went to Alice's room, her bed was covered in piles of clothes she was planning to get rid of so there was nowhere to sit. Instead, I went to Edward's room and sat on his couch. It was a strange room; sun cascaded from the almost completely glass walls over the shelves of hundreds of CDs.

I focused my hearing on the living room. " _I know that it's a hard decision to make, but I want you to complete the transition. I can't lose you."_

" _I was planning on it."_

" _Really?"_

" _Yes, Edward. I'm not going to just die."_

" _You weren't even considering not going through with it?"_

" _I'm not suicidal. If this is what had to happen, then I might as well see it through."_

" _Caroline, stop listening to us."_

"Sorry!" I yelled back. "Can I stay here though?" His couch was really comfortable. He muttered a quick _yeah_ and got back to talking with Bella. I stretched myself out on his couch and stared out the window at the trees. There was a bed but I felt that it would be weird for me to go on it. Besides, Stefan's scent lingered on the couch so I assumed this is where he had been sleeping.

I heard the shower turn off and minute later, Stefan came into the room. "What are you doing here?" he said. His hair was still wet and he was wearing some of Edward's clothes and it just clicked that they would fit him perfectly because they're identical. I didn't know why I was thinking about that.

"I was eavesdropping on Edward and Bella but now I am just bored."

"Bella's awake?" he asked.

"Yeah, you didn't hear everyone freaking out?"

"I wasn't paying attention." He ran his hand through his hair. "So what do you want to do now?"

I shrugged. "Wanna go somewhere?"

"Like where?"

"How about the beach? It's not this sunny often," I suggested.

"I'm pretty sure the Quileutes don't want vampires around there."

"Right." He sat down on the couch next to me and while we thought about what we could do to pass time. "Where else is there in Forks?"

He glanced out the window. "Why don't we leave Forks? It's only nine, we could check out Seattle."

"Oh! I've always wanted to go there!" I exclaimed.

"I'm pretty sure it is only a three and a half hour drive so if we leave now, we can spend the rest of the day there," he said, almost giddily. "Come on, let's go ask Edward if we can borrow his car."

When we went downstairs, Bella was asleep in Edward's arms and he had his head resting on hers as he held her. Like always, I couldn't help but see Stefan holding Elena. I silently asked him if we could use his car and he nodded. We slipped out the door before he could comment on my thoughts.

The drive to Seattle was actually pretty fun. "No, not this song!" I complained when Stefan turned on the radio.

"Why not?" he asked. "I like this song."

"I hear this literally all the time. Change the station." He turned the knob on the dashboard and the song changed to one that was more my taste.

" _We belong to the light, we belong to the thunder,"_ I sang loudly.

"You really like eighties music, don't you?" he teased.

"You got a problem with that?" I accused him and turned the volume up higher.

"Nah, I just think it's funny." He said. "You're really good."

"Why, thank you." It hit me that he hadn't been there the time I sang at the Mystic Grill. " _Whatever we deny or embrace for worse or for better, we belong, we belong, we belong togethe_ r." It was one of my favorite songs growing up since all of my childhood fantasies of true love and love at first sight were summed up in its lyrics. About how people were soulmates and were destined to be together. " _I hear your voice inside me, I see your face everywhere._ " But as I sang the lines, the song made me feel sick for some reason. I changed the station back to the song we were listening to earlier.

"What's wrong?" Stefan asked, surprised my sudden interest in pop.

"I just decided that I'd rather listen to Ariana," I claimed. I didn't sing this time since the song was far out of my range. Even though he nodded and lip-synced along, I felt like he could tell why I changed the station.

When we arrived in the city after a three-hour drive, we had to decide where to visit in our couple of hours we could stay. "We could visit the Space Needle," I suggested.

"Definitely," he agreed. "Or we could try the Pike Place Market if you'd like. They throw fish around there."

I stared at him. "Fish?"

He laughed at my puzzled expression. "It's actually impressive. All you have to do is buy a fish from them and they'll throw it."

"Have you seen it in person or something?

He nodded proudly. "I visited back in nineteen… forty or so. It's a tradition of their's to throw the fish that are purchased."

"I'll have to see it myself, I guess. Where do you want to go first?"

"Well, we're about a block from the Space Needle." He pointed at the structure towering above us.

"Woah, let's definitely check that out first."

He pulled up to the parking lot in front of a bunch of skinny trees. The place was mostly empty because it was a Monday and only half past noon. At the base, we purchased two tickets for the elevator up. The elevator was made of glass so we could see the entire city. I pressed myself against the wall and stared off at the water in awe. It was the first time I had ever seen the Pacific Ocean and while it didn't look much different from the Atlantic, it was still amazing to know this was water on the complete opposite side of the continent.

Instead of buying lunch at the top, we opted to just sit at the window because of how expensive the meals were. "Stefan, this is so cool!" I nearly yelled as I watched the planes fly close to the water. I pulled out my phone and took a couple of pictures of the skyline. "Which tower is that?" I asked while pointing the tallest one. When he didn't respond, I glanced over at him. Instead of looking at the city like I was, he was staring directly at me. We were silent and I could see something in his eyes that I couldn't quite put a finger on. His eyes locked on my lips and it felt like a magnet was suddenly pulling us together.

We were just inches apart when a group of girls who looked like they were in middle school walked past us, giggling amongst themselves. I turned to glare at them but they had already turned the corner.

"The Columbia Tower," Stefan said when he snapped out of his daze.

"Sorry, what?"

"The Columbia Tower," he repeated, shifting away from me awkwardly. "You asked which tower that one was."

"Oh, right." I had completely forgotten about my question.


	14. Chapter 14

Bella POV:

Everyone was shouting. The entire family was asking if I was okay and how I felt so it was hard to focus. My head hurt and I could barely comprehend what anyone was saying. Emmett was making up nicknames for me but I couldn't process what he had said. "Guys! Can you be quiet?" I yelled when I couldn't take any more of it. They stopped talking. "My head hurts and I can't listen to all of you at the same time." The vampires left the living room right away leaving me alone with Edward.

"So I guess I'm dead?" I asked him. The last thing I could remember was Victoria's arms around me. She had threatened to kill me if anyone moved… and that's it. My neck was still sore so I assumed she had gone through with breaking it.

"I'm so sorry, Bella. I can't believe I let Victoria hurt you," he apologized.

"It's fine," I dismissed him.

"No, it's not."

"She was going to kill me anyway, it's better that I had Caroline's blood. At least I woke up," I reasoned. "I mean, obviously I'd rather I stay human but what can we do about it?"

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know that it's a hard decision to make, but I want you to complete the transition. I can't lose you." I smiled at his sentiment.

"I was planning on it."

"Really?" He seemed surprised.

"Yes, Edward. I'm not going to just die."

He looked almost offended that I was willing to become a vampire. "You weren't even considering not going through with it?"

"I'm not suicidal. If this is what had to happen, then I might as well see it through."

He stared at the ceiling, frowning. He paused for a second and then shouted, "Caroline, stop listening to us." I heard her shuffling around a bit but I couldn't make out what she was saying. Trying to listen made my headache even worse. "Yeah," Edward responded to something she said.

"Of course, love." With my eyes closed, I could feel one of his hands in my hair and the other rubbing my back. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought I heard him murmur, "At least I'll have you forever."

"No, Emmett, she hasn't even completed the transition yet. Why would you even suggest that?" Edward scolded Emmett. I was barely awake but no one noticed. Edward was no longer lying the couch with me and squinting, I could see him arguing with Emmett across the room.

"Then have her complete the transition!" Emmett protested. Whatever they were talking about, I had no idea.

Edward growled, "I'm not going to rush her into anything."

"She already agreed to turn, why wait?"

"Why do you need to arm wrestle her anyways?" Edward demanded. _Arm wrestle?_ "You're going to break her arm."

"Nah, she's pretty much unbreakable now. Even if I did, it'd heal quickly. You saw how fast Caroline's chest closed up when she got stabbed." Edward winced in response. "It'll be fine. We had an agreement to see who was stronger once she turned."

I sat up, surprising both of them. Usually, Edward would know that I was awake due to my heart. But it was much more even beating now that I was dead. "Can one of you pass me a blood bag?" They looked at each other like I was crazy. "There's only one or two left in the fridge for Caroline and Stefan but I'm sure they'll be fine if I had one. Carlisle said he was going to get some more."

Emmett left the living room to find the blood. "So you're really doing this?" Edward asked as he returned to his seat beside me.

"Yes, why wouldn't I? As Emmett said, there's no reason to wait."

"You heard that?" I nodded and he hesitated. "Bella, you had your whole life ahead of you. I can't believe that you're fine with this."

"You always knew you'd have to turn me," I stressed. "The only way we could be together was for me to become a vampire. It's just a little different this way."

"Different?" Edward said angrily. "We didn't plan this. I was supposed to change you once we were married, not by accident by a woman who tried to kill you."

"It's actually better this way. We were going to have to fake my death to Charlie and Renee. This is perfect! I look normal now but I won't age."

"That's my entire point. You could've gotten older and had kids."

"Not with you I couldn't." I asserted. "I know what I'm giving up. Trust me." I smiled reassuringly and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

Emmett came into the room with a blood bag. "Drink up," he said as he tossed it to me. I caught it swiftly and pulled the cap off of the end of the tube coming out of the top. Taking a deep breath, I brought it up to my lips. Edward opened his mouth to object but closed it when Emmett gave him a look. Before he'd somehow figure out a reason for me not to transition, I started drinking. The rusty taste was unusual at first but I found myself chugging the entire bag in seconds. I had expected the blood to taste different than it had when I was human but instead, it tasted exactly the same, I just craved it more.

"Wow, that's kind of gross," Emmett commented.

"Wanna sip?" I offered. He shook his head and I realized how insensitive it sounded. "Sorry." Edward's eyes flashed black for a second and I wiped the blood off of my lips on my sleeve. "Why are you here? Didn't you guys all go hunting?" I asked Emmett. Finally, I was processing what they had been saying earlier.

"I came back early to see you," he stated. Edward looked at him, urging him to continue. "And to challenge you to an arm wrestling contest." I felt so much stronger than I had before so I accepted.

"Later, once everyone else is home. I'll arm wrestle you. But let me warn you, prepare to lose," I said confidently. Edward raised his eyebrows at me and Emmett looked shocked.

"You're smug now, but there is no way I'm losing to a girl." His arms were crossed and he tried his best to look angry but the smile he was trying to suppress told me otherwise.

The doorbell rang. When I ran to go answer it, I pushed off a little too hard and the next second, I had smashed into the door with a loud thud. My new speed was impressive. I pulled the door open to see Charlie. "Bella, what is wrong with you?" he fumed. "It's been days. I have called you so many times. You can't just disappear like that! With all the murders in Seattle, you could've been dead and I wouldn't have known." Emmett snickered at the 'dead' comment and Charlie turned to him, his face turning red with anger. "Why did you people think it's acceptable to keep my daughter for this long?"

"I'm incredibly sorry, Chief," Edward apologized. "We lost track of time."

"Lost track of time?" he demanded. "Doing what exactly?"

"Nothing, dad. Alice and I were doing a Buffy marathon and we forgot about how long it had been," I lied.

"And where is Alice?" he asked. I raised my hand to make an excuse but he interrupted me. "Is that a ring?" His face turned from red to purple. Edward was indestructible but even he still looked absolutely terrified of my father.

"Y-yes," I stammered. I could hear his blood pressure increase and the vein in his neck was dancing around with the beat of his heart. For the first time in my vampire life, which wasn't very long I must admit, I was thirsty. The fact that he was my dad was suddenly irrelevant and all that mattered was that the thin skin between me and his blood.

"What is going on with your face?" he asked, his voice full of fear. I felt my cheek with my hand and the veins coming from my eyes were bulging outwards. "Bells you-"

"Calm down." I interrupted him. The redness in his face faded and he relaxed. I was confused at first but I remembered what Stefan had tried with Angela. "Leave. Go home and forget that you had come to visit. I had called you earlier and you were fine with my absence for the last couple of days." Immediately, he turned on his heel and left. Emmett and Edward both looked impressed.

"Bella, that was so cool!" Emmett stared at my face, looking for the veins that had already gone away.

"You really _are_ a vampire now," said Edward. Their compliments were flattering, of course. But the power I felt when I compelled Charlie out the door made me realize that there was no way Emmett would beat me at arm wrestling.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Caroline POV:  
Riding the elevator down the space needle was just as fun as going up. We didn’t mention… whatever it was we had at the top. After we got our fill of the city skyline, we went back down to explore more. On the way down, Stefan pointed out a couple of things to me.   
“That’s Mount Rainier over there,” he showed me. “And the water here is the Puget Sound.”  
“I knew that already.”  
“Okay,” he smirked at me. “Congrats.” I rolled my eyes.   
“Isn’t the first Starbucks around here somewhere?”   
“It is but it’s really small so you can’t see it from up here.”   
“Huh.” I crossed my arms, trying to think of other places. But the elevator was fast so we weren’t up there for a long time. “That was really fun, thanks for showing me. Wanna go see the flying fish now?”   
“Are you planning on getting a fish? Because if you want to do anything else, we should do that first.”   
I thought about what we had seen at the top. “What about the Ferris wheel?” I pointed in the direction of the giant ride.   
“That sounds great.”   
We drove to the pier where the wheel was. It looked even bigger in person, almost intimidating. “You’re not scared of heights, are you?” he joked.   
“Nah, let’s do this.” The line wasn’t very long, thankfully, so we only waited for a couple of minutes. The ride was more expensive than I had expected, but I tried not to think about it. “Here we go,” I said as the wheel started to spin slowly. The cage swung side to side and I gripped on to the wall so I wouldn’t fall over. Once we were at the top, I was completely amazed by the view. Unlike the space needle, it felt so much more real since there was no glass in between us and outside. Stefan seemed much more interested in looking around this time as if he hadn’t seen the city when we were in the Space Needle.  
“This is the highest Ferris wheel I’ve ever been on,” I commented.  
“It’s the tallest one on the West Coast,” he told me. “I think it’s over a hundred fifty feet, but I’m not sure.”   
“Really? How do you know stuff like this?”   
He shrugged. “I guess I heard it somewhere.” The gondola lurched suddenly and I fell forward. Stefan grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back. “Wonder why that happened?”   
“That was scary.” I nervously readjusted back in my seat after he let go of me. But because we were so high in the air, I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea that the wheel had malfunctioned. So I scooted closer to Stefan, pressing myself against his side. Not that that made it any safer but it sure felt like it. He didn’t seem to mind.  
After we got off the Ferris wheel, the man running it apologized for the issues. We left to see the fish. When we got to the market, he led me through the various stands to the fish. On the way there, I was distracted by a stand selling jewelry. It wasn’t the necklaces and earrings that had me interested, but the sign displayed behind the counter.   
“Want anything? I can buy you something if you’d like,” Stefan offered.  
“No thanks, I brought some money,” I declined, still staring. He followed my gaze to the picture of the boy on the sign.  
“Isn’t that…”  
“Yeah, it is.” Missing, the sign read. Riley Biers age 18. Below that, was the contact information. He had been the one at Victoria’s side that Angela had set on fire. The picture was blurry but I could make out the blond boy in the hastily taken selfie. In the picture, he wore a smile and looked younger than when I had encountered him so I assumed that there weren’t that many pictures to choose from. My eyes filled with water as I realized that whoever put up this sign had no idea of what had happened. At the time, I had wanted him dead. But seeing that there were people that cared to search for him made me feel uneasy.  
“Come on,” I motioned for Stefan to keep moving. “I wanna get to the fish.”   
He agreed and we moved through the crowd. I heard some shouting and then I saw it; two men were throwing fish across the aisle to each other. I watched a woman hand money to the man at the counter. He yelled to the other man standing next to the fish on the ice display. A fish was hurled across to him where he caught it and wrapped it up for her. As she walked away, she pulled her kid off of the metal statue of a pig that was at the side. This market is weird.  
“Why do they do that?” I questioned Stefan.  
“Well, they only throw the fish if you buy it. People buy fish so that they can see the show. It’s pretty smart.”   
“Then we’ll have to buy one,” I concluded. He chuckled and we walked up to the stand. I approached with complete confidence. “One fish, please,” I said excitedly.   
“What type of fish would you like?” he asked. I hesitated and looked at Stefan for help. He shrugged and continued to watch me make a fool out of myself.  
“A… salmon,” I said the first fish I thought of.  
“And what type of salmon?”   
“A big one.” What am I doing? Stefan was standing next to me trying to contain his laughter. I glared at him.   
“I’ll get you a king salmon, is that okay?” His tone suggested that I wasn’t the first one to order a fish without actually wanting one.  
“Sounds good,” I agreed, not really knowing how a king salmon was any different from any other salmon. He called my order out to the other worker who picked up the salmon. I realized my mistake as soon as I saw the fish I had chosen. It was at least two feet long and chunkier than any of the fish that Charlie had ever brought home. The audience that had formed around the stand moved closer to see the monster of a fish that he was holding and he spun it around, showing it off. Then, he tossed it to the guy at the counter and it was like a game started; they threw it back and forth a couple of times as if they were trying to outdo each other with each spin of the fish. Finally, the salmon was wrapped up and I paid for it.   
“What do I do with this?” I asked Stefan as I walked with the fish in my arms.   
“You’re the one who bought it, figure it out yourself.” He snickered while he watched me struggle to comfortably carry it.  
“Haha. I guess I’ll just bring this with me the rest of the day.” I settled for holding it over my shoulder like you would a child, no longer caring about how my clothes would smell.   
“Caroline, look at this.” Stefan pointed to another stand which sold different handmade bags.   
“What?”   
He pulled out his wallet and said to the woman running the stand, “I’ll take that blue backpack.”   
“That’ll be $24.47.”   
“Great, thanks.” He took the bag from her hands and ran back to me. “Here,” he said as he took the fish from my arms. “Put this on.” I complied and slipped the backpack on around my shoulders.   
“Thanks, but you really didn’t have to buy me anything.” I admired the bag; it was simple without any patterns but the blue was a pretty color. He smiled mischievously at me before placing the entire fish in it.   
“Stefan!” I yelled. The fish’s head was sticking out of the top. “What is this?”  
“It’ll be easier to carry this way,” he explained.   
“But- I-” I sputtered, not knowing how to respond to this ridiculous method of fish carrying. “People are going to stare!”  
“They’ll stare anyways if you’re carrying that around, might as well make it easier for yourself.” He put a hand on my shoulder.  
“My hair is going to smell like fish.”   
“Good thing it’s short now. What are you going to name it?”   
At this point, I was so confused that it didn’t even seem like a strange question. “Uh, what about fsh?”  
“Fsh? Am I pronouncing that right? Why fsh?”   
“Because he doesn’t have any eyes.” I pointed to the empty sockets on the head. I couldn’t help but laugh at my stupid joke. He stared at me blankly. Before we left, we bought a bag of ice so that Fsh wouldn’t spoil.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"We're back," I called out when we came through the front door, which had been left unlocked. "Hello?" No one responded. I looked at Stefan and could feel my face turning white as I thought about what could have happened. He too wore a serious expression as we crept quietly through the house.

I whispered, "You don't think…"

"Your arms are like sticks!" yelled Emmett from the backyard.

"I'm still stronger than you," taunted Bella. We ran to see what was going on and saw Emmett sitting across a large rock from Bella with the rest of the family standing around them. They were across the yard under the trees where the sun couldn't reach Bella. Propped up against a tree was an umbrella, presumably for her to cross the yard with.

Alice welcomed us, "You're just in time! Emmett and Bella are going to fight to the death."

"They're going to arm wrestle," Edward corrected her. "What's that?" He pointed at my backpack. "This? It's a fish." I pulled the enormous fish from the bag to show it to him.

"Put it in the fridge, okay?"

"And grab me a blood bag while you're at it," Bella said. "If it's not too much of an inconvenience," she added, apologetically. Everyone glanced at her nervously but looked away when Edward glared at them.  _She's drinking human blood?_  I thought, staring at him. He nodded slowly so that Bella wouldn't notice our silent conversation.  _Don't you avoid drinking human blood? Why are you allowing her to?_  He shrugged but his face showed that too he was weirded out by Bella's sudden attitude change.

Stefan went to sit with the rest of them and I went to the kitchen to put away Fsh. When I opened the refrigerator, I saw that there were five more blood bags than there had been when we left for Seattle. Carlisle had mentioned that he would try to refill our supply from work so it wasn't all that odd. Of course, it was strange that he would go through the trouble of stealing blood bags only to take five of them. I took one to bring out for Bella.

"Drink up," I said when I got back outside, tossing the bag to Bella.

"Thanks." She downed the bag quickly and then squeezed the remaining blood to the top. She set the empty bag down next to the rock and then wiped the blood off her lips on the sleeve of her shirt. It's a nice shirt, too. "Let's do this." She placed her arm on the rock and Emmett mirrored her.

"I'm cheering for Bella but we all know that they're much stronger than us," Stefan whispered to me.

"Let's just see," I said. Emmett held Bella's arm and they readied themselves.

"No pulling towards yourself, no lifting your elbow off of the rock, and keep your other arm behind your back," Alice listed. "Start when I get to three. One. Two. Three!" Emmett and Bella started pulling and both of their faces were strained. The muscles in Emmett's arms were flexed and for the first time, I noticed how terrifyingly strong he was. But so was Bella; somehow, her thin arms were holding up against Emmett. They were stuck in the middle, their strength completely equal.

"You go, Bella!" Jasper shouted.

"Come on, Emmett," Rosalie said in disbelief. "How haven't you crushed her yet?"

Emmett's face was all scrunched up as he tried to push Bella's arm harder. Slowly, Bella was starting to give way. She made a small noise as she tried to resist but her arm was too far to the side for her to recover. "Push harder, Bella!" I called out. She took a shaky breath and then their arms were moving in the opposite direction. They were back in the middle again and her face was red from concentration. Suddenly, she slammed his arm down and the rock cracked through the middle.

"What?" Emmett cried out in frustration. We all cheered, surprised by Bella's comeback. He sighed and shook her hand. "Good job."

We all congratulated Bella and she crushed the rest of the rock to show off. While we were all laughing at Emmett, I saw Stefan staring curiously at Bella. "That was impressive," he said and she beamed at him. "But you're a new vampire. How're you this strong?"

"Maybe Emmett's just weak," Bella said, smiling arrogantly. "Caroline, you're older than me. Why don't you arm wrestle me?"

"Sure. But you broke the rock."

"We can find another one." She looked around and then pointed to a boulder fifteen feet away. "Like that." Bella ran over to it and sat down on one side of it and I joined her,  
"Okay, same rules as last time," Alice said as we grabbed hands. "One. Two. Three." We started and right away I realized how strong she was. Unnaturally strong. I was pushing as hard as I could.

"Come on," I muttered under my breath and within twenty seconds struggling against each other, I shoved her arm down onto the rock.

Bella looked disappointed but shook my hand. "Dang, you're good."

"Thanks, but I've been a vampire longer."

Bella picked up her umbrella and we all went inside. I picked up the blood bag that Bella had left by the smashed rock. Inside, I opened up the cabinet below the sink to toss them out. In the trash can, there were a bunch of empty bags. Puzzled, I counted them up and saw that there were ten of them.

Esme was in the kitchen, preparing Fsh for us to eat when Emmett approached me at the bottom of the stairs. "Do you think that you are stronger than me?"

Caught off guard, I said, "No? But based off of the matches, maybe." But instead of smiling or rolling his eyes at me, he just stared at me.

"But you're not." He frowned. "I tried my absolute hardest to beat Bella and she still beat me. I thought she was just strong because of the transition or whatever but she lost to you."

"I guess that is weird."

"It makes no sense to me. How did I lose to her if she's your type of vampire?"

I shifted to my other foot. "She's been drinking human blood."

"I know. She had a blood bag in front of us."

I shook my head and looked down at my feet. "I don't mean a bag or two. She drank most of the supply."

"Seriously?" Emmett looked shocked. "Why hadn't she mentioned it?"

"She probably is scared that you guys won't approve. But at least it explains why she's so strong."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "No, it doesn't. I mean, it explains why she could beat these," he flexed his arm, "but not why she couldn't beat you."

"Maybe you tired her out?" I suggested.

"Maybe." He still looked disbelieving. We both knew that vampires don't get tired easily and when they do, it wears off quickly. But it was the best explanation we had. Esme called for me to come to the dinner table.

In front of us was my beloved salmon Esme had prepared. Seeing her set down such a fancy dinner and then just leave really did take getting used to. The only ones at the table were Stefan, Bella, Edward, and I. Edward was just here to be polite. The salmon was plenty for the three of us and it was delicious.

After dinner, I pulled Bella aside in Alice's room.

"I saw how many blood bags you finished," I said uncomfortably. Bella and I hadn't had many conversations alone.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I know we're supposed to share but I'm pretty sure Carlisle can get more."

"That's not what I meant. I don't mind if there's less to go around, I'm just concerned for you."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone back in Mystic Falls has killed someone because we wanted their blood." I shivered when I thought about the man I had murdered back at the school carnival. "I just don't want the same to happen to you."

"No." She paused. "I've got it under control. I won't hurt anyone."

"I know, but you can't be sure." I sat down on the floor and she did too. "I'm really, really sorry about all this."

"No, I'm actually grateful. Everything is better this way."

"You sure?"

"Yeah! This is so much better. Edward couldn't even stop me from turning. I owe you."

Not that I'd known Bella for a long time, but this seemed really weird. "Um, thanks. Just lay off the human blood, okay? We'll take you bunny hunting tomorrow."

"Okay."


	17. Chapter 17

I woke up at five in the morning. Bella was asleep and I focused my hearing on the rest of the house to figure out who was awake. Edward's room was silent so Stefan wasn't there. Edward might be, but he does have a habit of being weirdly quiet sometimes. In the kitchen, I heard Rosalie and Emmett arguing over something but I stopped listening for their privacy.

"Just go for it," said Jasper when I focused on the living room.

"I just don't want to mess up," Stefan responded.

"You won't," Jasper reasoned. I had no idea what they were talking about. "It's been long enough."

"One wrong move and I'll mess up everything," he said, frustrated. I could feel my heart beating faster. It sounded almost like-

heard a clattering noise and Stefan sighed loudly. "Dang it," he exclaimed. Confused, I ran down the stairs to see what they were doing.

"More like Jeng it!" Emmett called from the kitchen. "Oh my god, Jasper stop, I'm sorry."

Jasper was frowning and his hand was clenched. "What are you doing?" I inquired.

"Just making him feel the pain I feel," he responded casually. On the coffee table was a mess of Jenga bricks from the tower that they had toppled over. Stefan's face lit up when I sat down next to him.

"You guys are playing Jenga?" I asked. "I haven't played that game for years."  
"Bella found a bunch of old games so she brought them over yesterday. I've never played this one before, but it is interesting," Jasper said. "Want to join in?"

"Sure." I picked up the blocks that had fallen on the floor and helped them put the tower back up again. "What's the order?"

"How about youngest to oldest? I'll go last." Stefan suggested.

"1844." Jasper gave a sly smile.

"Oh, then you'll go last, nevermind. 1846."

"1992," I said. Stefan chuckled.

Emmett walked over to us and sat down next to Jasper. "And I'll go second. You two are so old, I was born in 1913," he bragged.

"Fifteen, Emmett," Rosalie called from the kitchen.

"Sorry, 1915," he corrected himself. "Let's play."

Going first, I pushed the middle block out from the bottom of the tower and placed it on the top. "Your turn," I told Emmett. He cracked his knuckles. I watched him anxiously as he pulled the side piece from the layer above the bottom slowly. But the tower didn't fall.

"Okay, go, Eddy," he said, smiling triumphantly. "I mean Stefan. Stefie?"

"Please never call me that," Stefan said, laughing. He swiftly pulled out the side piece from the other side. The tower was looking really unstable now. Without having to be reminded, Jasper pulled a side piece from the layer above that one. Copying him, I carefully took the one from the other side of Jasper's.

"You know what would be really cool?" Emmett asked. He quickly pulled the single brick that made up the second layer and the entire tower fell straight down but not over. The third layer middle piece fell into the bottom side pieces and when he put the block back on top, the tower looked exactly the same way it had when we started.

"Woah, that was cool," I agreed. We both grinned at each other. For reasons unknown, Stefan looked strangely uncomfortable. He looked at Emmett and then back at me, frowning for a second, but then went back to playing the game. Jasper looked at him quizzically but he shook his head dismissing him. When he pulled out a brick from near the bottom, he moved it wrong and the tower collapsed. I was surprised; Stefan was never clumsy.

We thought of going hunting in the morning but Bella was very limited by having to avoid the sun and Angela was out on a date with Ben so she couldn't come over. As soon as the sun set, we took off for the woods to look for animals to drink from. Bella seemed nervous since it was her first time drinking blood from a living thing and to be completely honest, so was I. I had only drunk from humans and blood bags before so a rabbit didn't sound entirely appetizing.

So not to overwhelm Bella, it was just Stefan, Edward, and I out with her. Stefan and Edward both were used to this diet already so they would be good at teaching. I was just here because I felt guilty for causing all of this.

I don't care if Bella says that she is thankful that I indirectly turned her. She's happy now but I can tell she won't be when she first kills someone; it's bound to happen. Of course, I am weirdly better as a vampire.

"So," Edward started, "Animal blood tastes different than human blood. Less filling."

"Great," Bella mumbled.  
He smiled at her. "I'm just warning you. Okay, when you hunt, listen for the sound of their heartbeat. It's easier to tell where they are that way."

"What am I supposed to be looking for?" I asked.

"Eat whatever you want," Stefan said.

"I prefer mountain lions, but I don't think we will find them here," Edward said. We weren't all that far from their house and we were in a forest that apparently surrounded "their meadow".

I pounced on the first animal I saw; a squirrel. But seeing it squeak and try to get away made me feel bad so I set it back down on the tree. "How do you bring yourself to eat these things?" I asked the doppelgängers.

"You drink from humans," Edward commented.

"Yeah, well you can compel humans to not scream." They exchanged a look.

"This makes me nervous." Bella fidgeted.

Just then, a rabbit hopped past. I took a deep breath and then grabbed it, sinking my teeth into its neck before it could make a sound. It didn't feel good but the blood wasn't as bad as I thought. I was expecting liquid garbage as Elena had said. Of course, it didn't compare at all to even the blood bags. "Bella, you can drink these just fine. It doesn't really taste that bad." She nodded slowly, looking grossed out by the rabbit carcass I had just thrown aside.

Bella froze, crouching down to focus on listening. She put her hand to her ear and closed her eyes. "I hear something," she whispered and then took off running. We jogged behind her and watched as she tackled a deer to the ground. She pierced its neck with her fangs and the veins on her face bulged. The animal struggled at first but fell limp after maybe ten seconds of being used like a water bottle. "You're right," she said after she drained the deer. "It does taste okay."

"That's wonderful, love," Edward said, staring in amazement as she wiped the blood off of her mouth.

"Why don't you two take that side of the forest and Caroline and I take the other?" Stefan contributed. "That way we don't run out."

"Okay," agreed Bella. We decided on a boundary line and then set off to look for more deer. I had never seen Stefan hunt before and he acted differently when he did. He was much quieter than usual and he walked carefully to not scare animals away. I tried to imitate his steps but it didn't really work. After a couple of minutes of me breaking sticks on the ground, he gave up on trying to be sneaky.

"We're probably aren't going to find any animals soon," Stefan said.  
"Yeah, and to be honest, I'm not really craving any more rabbits."

"I respect that."

"So, you're friends with Jasper now?"

"Yeah, I guess. I can relate to him easily. The only other person around my age I know, I mean, knew was, well, Damon." He added, "And you're friends with Emmett."

I nodded. "He's pretty great." Stefan wore the same look he had earlier during Jenga but I didn't ask about it.

"It's good that Bella is adjusting well," he said, changing the topic.

"Don't you find that kind of weird?" I asked, having been thinking about this very thing. "No one ever has it this easy."

He furrowed his brow. "It is weird. But Elena didn't have much of a hard time either, maybe it's a doppelgänger thing."

"Until she killed Connor. And turned off her humanity."

"True." He put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the trees. "Well, I think it also might be because she wants to be a vampire. She's not panicked like everyone else."

Before I could respond, I heard a rustling in the bushes. We both fell silent to listen. It was a noise too loud for a rabbit so I crept up, waiting for a deer to appear. Suddenly, the figure rushed out, too fast for me to see who it was. "What was that?" Bella called out. We ran in her direction and saw that a bush in front of her had been trampled.

"It had to be a vampire," Stefan said. "They were so fast."

"There's more?" Edward asked.

"Well, we never killed Victoria," I pointed out.

Bella nodded. "If that was her, she saw me."

"So?" I looked at her trying to figure out what that would mean.

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and then turned to Bella. "She had thought you were dead."


	18. Chapter 18

"A hotdog is a sandwich. There is bread on both sides and meat in the middle. A sandwich," Alice yelled swinging her arms around wildly.

"The bread is connected! A sandwich needs two pieces of bread!" Emmett yelled back.

"If I took some meat, cheese, and lettuce, and instead of two pieces of bread I folded a slice over them, that'd be a sandwich, right?"

Emmett ignored that. "I bet you think that cereal is soup."

"Frankly, I do."

"It's not!" They had been screaming at each other for the last twenty minutes about the silliest topics. I didn't want to get in the middle so I stepped outside.

I was relaxing alone in the yard when my phone rang. The caller ID read Elena so I quickly picked up.

"Care, something's going on and I don't know what it is. Where are you and Stefan?"

"I guess we lost track of time," I apologized. "We're still here in Forks." Elena sighed on the other line.

"What's in Forks that's so important? Everyone's been asking about you and your mom is worried sick."

"We found another pair of doppelgängers and a whole new species of vampires. It's a long story but so much has happened since I left."

"Did you just find out about this?" she asked excitedly. "How is that even possible?"

"I-" I really had lost track of time. No one in Mystic Falls knew about anything that had happened here. "We found out a week or two ago. We'd been so busy that I forgot to tell you."

She was silent for a couple of seconds. "Busy with what, exactly?"

"Well, we had this battle with Victoria and her army of vampires. It was eleven against, like, forty-"

"Who's Victoria?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about her."

She cut me off. "You forgot to tell me about anything. You went to war with an army of vampires and you didn't think to call? Care, we could've helped you out!"

"I didn't want you to have to get involved."

Elena sounded hurt. "You know, I'm not weak just because I'm having a hard time losing…" She took a shaky breath.

"Damon," I supplied. "I know, it's hard. I'm so sorry, it would be awful if I had to lose-" I cut myself off, not really knowing what I was saying. "I mean, when I lost… my dad." I frowned. That was ages ago.

"Damon?" she asked, confused. "Why would I care about Damon? I mean, I know Stefan isn't doing so great with his death so I don't mean to sound insensitive."

"Bonnie," I corrected myself, remembering her deal with Alaric. "I meant Bonnie. I'd been talking about Damon with Stefan so much that I forgot that you and him weren't close. Of course you wouldn't care about Damon."

"Um, okay." She sounded unconvinced by my ramblings.

"Anyway," I said, changing the subject. "What were you saying earlier? About 'something going on'?"

"There's a vampire in Mystic Falls."

"Aren't there always vampires in Mystic Falls?"

"Where have you been? Did you also forget about the magic border?" Her voice was full of frustration.

"Oh, yeah. That. So how do you know about this vampire?"

"Matt spotted her. Apparently, someone has been running around town at vampire speed. But it doesn't make sense. Vampires can't enter an anti-witch border because they were created by witches."

"Does he know what she looks like?"

"All he says he could tell was that her hair is red. With her going so fast, and all."

I bit my lip. "Sounds like Victoria. She's the other kind of vampire I was talking about."

"What are they like?"

"They're barely even vampires, other than drinking blood," I explained. "They don't have blood, they sparkle in the sunlight, they can't be staked, and a bunch of other weird stuff."

"Are they like the Originals?"

"Sort of. They can still be killed, though. You have to rip them up."

"Weird. I could ask Alaric but I doubt he'd know because he would've brought it up by now. Anyway, what's my doppelgänger like?"

"You guys are similar enough. We messed up and she's a vampire now."

"Oh no," she said sympathetically. "How's she adjusting?"

"Surprisingly well, actually. She hasn't killed anyone yet. She keeps thanking me for turning her so I don't think she's upset."

"That's good." I could almost hear her nodding on the other end. "Is she strong?"

I glanced through the window and saw Emmett and Alice still shouting. "I think so?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we arm wrestled and I beat her."

"She sounds weak," Elena teased.

"You'd think so. But she won against Emmett which makes no sense at all."

"Who's Emmett?"

Inside, Emmett had picked up Alice and was currently in the process of spinning her around on top of his shoulder. She was slamming her fists into his back but he was just laughing. "He's this real buff dude. Like, way buffer than Jeremy."  
"Is he hot?"

I hadn't thought about that at all. Which is pretty strange, being me. "No, I mean, maybe to some people. He's not my type." It wasn't a lie, I really couldn't see Emmett as anything but a friend. Based on yesterday, Stefan seemed to think differently. "Bella beat him in arm wrestling but she couldn't beat me."  
"Could he have been going easy on her?"

"No, he was very determined to win. He's not one to be gentle." I watched as he tossed Alice all the way across the living room onto a couch. If she had been human, that could easily have broken her neck. She stood up, looking only somewhat dazed.

"I have no clue, then. Has she said anything else that's weird?"

I thought back to our conversation about the blood bags. "Just that she 'owes me' and that she's better this way. Other than that, no."

"Then I don't know, sorry."

Stefan walked outside to where I was sitting. "I think I might."

"You were listening?" I accused him.

"Is that Stefan? Hi, Stefan!" Elena shouted. "I haven't heard your voice in such a long time!"

He smiled. "Hey, Elena. It's nice to hear you too."

"What'd you say you knew about?" I asked before Elena could say anything more.

"Well, you said that Bella said she owed you. And that everything is better this way."

"Yeah."

"And this started around when she became a vampire, correct?" He looked at me pointedly and suddenly it registered with what he meant.

Elena was still confused. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Wouldn't you know? You were the one sired to-" I stopped when Stefan put a finger to my lips and then shook his head. "Right, that wasn't you. I meant, you saw what happened to Tyler. With Klaus, remember?"

She was quiet for a moment and then exclaimed, "Oh! The sire bond? That was such a long time ago. I had completely forgotten."

Stefan and I gave each other sad looks. After all we went through to break her sire bond, it was crazy to think Alaric would've erased it right out of her mind. It made sense, there was no way she could remember the bond without remembering who she was bonded too. I walked over to the door and opened it. "Bella? Can you come here?" She rushed down the stairs and was outside with us within a second.

"Yeah, what is it?" she asked.

"Hey, Bella," said Elena.

"Woah, she sounds exactly like me! That is so weird," Bella said, staring at the phone. "Hey there, doppelgänger."

"Hello," Elena said politely. She was used to hearing her own voice by now because of Katherine. "Bella, what's your favorite color?"

Bella looked confused. "Topaz. Why?"

"Pink is better," I told her.

She thought for a second and then nodded. "I changed my mind. Pink is better."

Stefan looked worried. "Are you sure it is?"

She nodded again. "Topaz was my favorite color but I really do like pink more." I had heard her and Alice fighting over dresses enough to know that pink was not her favorite color.

"There's your answer," said Elena.


	19. Chapter 19

"It was nice talking to you," Stefan said to Elena.

"I miss you," I said.

"You too, guys. I hope to see you soon." It was a rushed goodbye, but Elena seemed to understand.

I hung up the phone and then turned to Stefan. "What are we going to do about her?"

Bella blinked. She was still standing underneath the awning of the house to avoid the sun. "What are you guys talking about? What's wrong with liking pink?"

"It's called a sire bond," Stefan explained.

"A what?"

"It's rare, but when someone has strong feelings for whoever's blood turned them, they can be bonded to them and will do whatever the other person wants and agrees with whatever they say. Meaning they lose free will, in a way." He crossed his arms.

She shook her head, laughing. "No, no, no. You don't understand. There's no mystical influence that made me beat Emmett. I just did. And why would I let Caroline beat me?"

"The sire bond," Stefan repeated.

"But I don't feel controlled. Nothing has felt different from back when I was human other than the vampy things, like the fast running and the thirstiness," she defended herself.

"That's how it was for Elena." Stefan ran his hand through his hair.

"And Tyler," I reminded him.

"Yeah, him too. It feels like you're in control. Elena was willing to do anything Damon told her because she had strong feelings for him before she turned." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice. "We couldn't figure it out for the longest time."

"Why not? Of course, she'd have strong feelings for him. Weren't they dating?" Bella asked. Stefan and I exchanged an awkward look.

"Um, yeah, we probably should have worked it out faster," he mumbled. I unconsciously leaned away, not wanting to explain the entire story. "It's unimportant. My point is, you don't feel any different and that's because of the sire bond."

She still looked unconvinced. "I'm not attracted to Caroline, though."

"The 'feelings' don't have to be romantic. Just because you're sire bonded to her doesn't mean you're a lesbian."

"Or bi," I chipped in.

"Um, yes, or bi. Edward didn't want you to turn so you're happy that Caroline turned you before he could have a say in it. Deep down, you blame him for not letting you turn for so long and she changed that."

Bella nudged the ground with her foot, looking guilty. With the silence that followed Stefan's explanation, it seemed that he was right. "I still need more proof. Ask me another one of those questions."

My gaze was on the sky as I shuffled 'favorite' type questions through my head. "Who's your favorite artist?"

"Do composers count? If so, then Debussy."

"That counts. And your favorite piece?"

"Claire de Lune. And yours?"

I had to think for a while. "Eternal Flame by The Bangles is a good one."

"I've never heard that one before. Can you play it on your phone?" she requested. I took my phone out and searched it up for her. The song had her looking underwhelmed when I played it which made sense; it was very different from classical.

"Wasn't it pretty good?" I asked for her opinion once the song was over. "It's one of the best songs ever."

"I'll have to agree with you on that one. But not because I just want to agree with you. I'd never heard that song before but now that I have, I see that it is better," she reasoned, determined to prove us wrong.

"How is this not enough proof?" I said in exasperation. "What else can we do?"

Stefan spoke up. "Well, you could just arm wrestle Emmett. If he wins, the only explanation would be that Bella could beat him because of the sire bond."

"Okay. Emm-"

"Good idea!" Emmett agreed from inside the house. "You realize literally everyone here has supernatural hearing, right?" A couple of seconds later, the rest of the family, minus Carlisle and Esme, were out with us. The only one who wasn't staring at Bella was the one staring at Stefan. Edward's expression was hard to describe; there was guilt mixed in there among other things. A hint of anger flashed over his face as his eyes criticized him for his earlier comments.

Stefan dashed off and then came back with the boulder Bella and I had used on Monday. It wasn't as nicely shaped as Bella and Emmett's, but Bella had already smashed that one. "Here you go." He set it down on the grass, closer to the house so that Bella could still see from underneath the shade of the house. As Emmett sat down, I realized I wouldn't even have to go easy on him to prove my point. He was almost twice my size.

"Let's do this, Care Bear." He grinned and I placed my elbow on the rough surface of the rock. Our hands interlocked and Alice counted us off. When she got to three, we started. Right away, I knew I was going to lose. I felt like my hand was going to be crushed. It was almost like the bones inside were rubbing against each other. I held out for about as long as Bella had but Emmett still crushed my arm against the rock.

"Ow," I muttered, shaking my arm out. "Is that good enough?"

She nodded.

I don't know why, but I felt more comfortable sleeping outside. It wasn't quite hostility that I felt from the vampires around me, but something was definitely wrong. After Alice settled down from her excitement of being able to change Bella's mind about certain things, mainly fashion choices, she seemed a little spooked. So was Edward, but I don't blame him. After all, he did just find out that his girlfriend could effectively become my slave.

I politely excused myself from Alice's room and crept outside. She didn't mind that much, and Bella had been sleeping in Edward's room. In the living room, I scooped up a blanket and a pillow from the couch to take into the yard. When I passed by the kitchen, I grabbed a blood bag to sip on before I went to sleep. There were significantly more bags in the refrigerator since Carlisle had refilled the supply and Bella had stopped drinking blood.

I tossed the blanket and pillow down and crawled under, my head facing the rock. The night air was slightly chilly, but not so cold that I'd need another blanket. The yard was almost silent, the only sounds being the slow cricket chirps, the quiet owl cooing, and, when I listened hard enough, Edward and Bella's argument.

The back door creaked open and Stefan walked out of the house carrying his own blanket and pillow. He smiled at me and set them down next to mine. "What are you doing?" I asked while he unrolled the blanket a couple of feet away from mine.

"Edward and Bella are upset about the sire bond so I wanted to give them space. I was going to sleep in the living room, but I heard you out here." He grimaced at the half-full blood bag I had next to my pillow so I moved it to the other side of me.

"It's nice to have company."

"Good." He looked less tense than usual, his arms limp at his sides and his face relaxed while he looked at the sky. "Why aren't you in the living room?"

"What do you mean? It's nice out here."

"Do you really think this is more comfortable than the couch?"

"Sure it is." The ground beneath me was hard and the grass was slightly moist. He raised an eyebrow and I conceded. "Okay, fine. I'm just avoiding everyone."

"I get it. I would be too."

"I don't blame them for being uncomfortable, though. I would be too. We've been staying here for almost two weeks with no end in sight."

"Do you not like it here?"

"It's not that." I tilted my head back. "I miss Mystic Falls. They have their own family here, and we have Elena and my mom. Why don't you want to go back?"

He looked away. "There's nothing there for me."

"Yeah? You know, you've said that before," I snapped angrily, thinking of the time he gave me the 'I was fated to come here' speech. "You're wrong. You can't just 'start a new life' because evidently, there are supernaturals everywhere you go so you can't exactly hide from them. You can't hide from me either."

"Creepy," he said, smirking. His teasing smile turned to a frown. "But why do you care so much?"

"Because," I breathed out, "I think that you are wrong. You say that there's nothing for you in Mystic Falls and yes, Damon is dead and Elena's probably not going to date you again. Tyler, Matt, and Jeremy don't really like you and there is a magic border that's keeping you from actually going into the town."

He looked confused. "You're just proving my point."

"No, I'm not. I think you forgot something when you were working out your 'I'm too good for Mystic Falls' logic."

"Then what is it?"

"Me," I said plainly. "I'll be there. After we kill Victoria and break the sire bond, I'm leaving. I'll go home, figure out how to break the border spell, finish college, and then spend the rest of my eternal life in Mystic Falls. If you don't come back with me, you might never see me again, just because 'there's nothing there for you'. I mean, you told me I was your best friend. I think that I deserve better than that." I crossed my arms and tried to ignore the tears that were starting to form in my eyes.

"Oh, Caroline, he said quietly, blinking quickly. "I didn't mean..." He stopped when my lip started quivering and grabbed me by the shoulders. His arms wrapped around me and I couldn't hold back the sobs.

"I'm sorry," I choked out.

"No, don't be sorry," he mumbled. His shoulder was wet with my tears but he didn't seem to mind.

"I just- I don't want to be alone after all this. Elena's weird now that her memory is messed up, and Bonnie's dead, and-" I was hyperventilating and he stroked my back to calm me down.

His voice was full of regret. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

I nodded, knowing that my face was probably as red as a tomato from all this crying. "I'm a mess," I said, pulling away.

He smiled, wiping his own tear from his face. "Maybe a little." I laughed in the middle of a sob and a weird noise came in its place. A light breeze passed us and I shivered. He grabbed the blanket I had loosely draped around me and wrapped it tighter around my shoulders.

"Th-thanks." I felt a bit silly being swaddled.

"So, are you going to sleep out here?" he asked.

"Yeah, you can go inside if you'd like." I turned away, ashamed of how I had just released all of my emotions at once.

"No, I think I'll just stay here." He laid down, not so close that we were touching, but close enough that I felt safe next to him.

"Okay." I closed my eyes.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

I was pretty much asleep when I heard Angela's voice. "Hey guys, are you out here? I just finished with- oh my god! I'm so sorry!" I opened my eyes just in time to see her red face as she turned around to shield her eyes. Stefan was still sleeping underneath me and I had no idea what the panic was about. Wait, underneath me? I was suddenly aware of the awkward position that we were in; my leg was draped over his legs and most of my torso was on his chest. When I tried to move, I realized that my arm was stuck under his back. The blanket I had brought out was covering our lower halves. He was snoring softly and didn't seem to notice. The morning was particularly warm and so was the night from what I could recall, so I couldn't figure why we had unconsciously gotten tangled like this.

"Stefan!" I hissed, leaning over his face. "Wake up!"

"What is it?" he said groggily, rubbing his eyes.

"Dude, move. You're crushing my arm."

"Sorry," he said, sitting up to free my trapped. He moved too quickly and ended up smashing his forehead right into mine.

"Ow! Stefan!" I pulled my leg off of his lap and rolled over, already feeling the bruise that would appear were I human. I rolled right into the boulder we had used for arm wrestling.

"Oh, sorry!" he repeated while standing up, blinking quickly and rubbing his head. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good." I took the hand he was offering me and stood up as well. "Thanks."

"You can turn around now, Angela," he called across the yard.

She turned back to us slowly. "Uh, yeah. Well, I just wanted to say that I just finished with Bella's daylight ring. Are you guys..."

We both stood up to show her that we were decent. "Yeah, nothing, uh… happened," Stefan mumbled, blushing slightly. His hair was messed up from his sleep and was not helping with our suspicious look.

"That's nice that you made her a ring," I said, adjusting my wrinkled pajamas. "Where is everyone?" I peered through the window and saw Emmett and Rosalie talking.

"I think that Bella and Edward are out. They were excited to get out of the house now that Bella won't burn. I'm not exactly sure where Alice and Jasper are but they're not here either."

Stefan was folding up the blankets when the doorbell rang. "I wonder who that is?" I asked, watching Emmett rush to the door.

Angela shrugged. "Maybe it's Alice. Do guys need help with-"

I heard shouting from inside. "Where is she!?" someone demanded. Stefan dropped the blankets he was holding. I ran back into the house with Angela and Stefan right behind me. "What did you do to her?" At the doorway was a kid who looked around my age with dark black hair and tan skin.

Emmett spoke quietly. "Calm down, puppy. You-"

"This isn't time for jokes, goddammit Emmett!" He stomped into the house and grabbed him by the collar. "Where's Edward?"

Emmett easily pulled the boy's hand off of him. "He's out with Bella." Jacob's eyes flashed with anger and he looked around the room, finally locking eyes with me.

"You," he hissed. "You're the  _other_  bloodsucker, aren't you? Did you turn her?"

I shook my head."No, I didn't. Well, not on purpose anyway. Who are you?"

Emmett smiled. "Caroline, Jacob. Jacob, Caroline. And back there," he pointed at Stefan, who had been trying to stay out of sight, "is Stefan. You probably heard about him from Sam. He's Edward's doppelgänger."

"Yeah, I've heard of him. That's not what I'm here for. Is Bella a vampire or not?" He was practically shaking with rage.

"Yes," I said quietly. "It was my blood, but Victoria turned her. Not me."

"Victoria? Did you manage to kill her?"

I hesitated. "No, but we destroyed her entire army. She got away since we were distracted by her killing Bella."

He walked into the living room, towering over me. "So you mean to tell me that Bella became one of you for no other reason than you  _accidentally_  letting Victoria kill her?" I stepped backward.

"Okay, Jacob. We'll talk to Sam about this. Just calm down." Emmett stepped between Jacob and me.

"Calm down? You weren't supposed to turn her and now she's some weird blood filled vampire. I already talked to Sam when I saw her speeding around through the forest."

"You saw her?" Angela joined us in the living room. Stefan still stood silent on the other side of the room.

"Angela?" Jacob stared at her. "Are you one of them too?

"No!" She showed him her normal-looking teeth and I tried not to laugh. "I'm, uh, normal. Jake. So what did Sam say?"

He let out a deep breath. "He sent me here to tell you all that the treaty is broken, and you're going to have to leave."

"That makes no sense!" Emmett yelled. "We kept up our side of the deal, the only thing we couldn't do was bite a human. Caroline didn't even bite Bella, it was her blood."

Jacob shook his head. "Doesn't matter. A vampire has been turned, and therefore you can't stay here."

"You didn't make the treaty with them. It was us, and we didn't turn anyone! They're a different type of vampires," Emmett said frustratedly and then added, "no offense."

"No offense taken. But he's right. Why would that violate the treaty if it's not even them who did it?" Stefan asked Jacob. Jacob had been glaring at him more than he had been at me, probably because he looked like Edward.

"I'm just following Sam's orders," he said defensively. "And he's just following the rules that we made with Cullens."

"And we're saying that we didn't break any," Emmet yelled.

Jacob stepped towards him. "A human is turned, the vampires leave. That's the rules."

"No, it's not! It's  _if a human is bitten!_ "

Jacob glanced around at the rest of us angrily. "Even if you didn't break any of our rules, you broke the Volturi's."

Emmett sighed loudly. "It was never going to work out anyway. If we followed their instructions, we'd break yours. We'd be dead either way."

Confused, I spoke up. "Wait, who's the Volturi?"

"They're a super powerful coven of vampires in Italy that decides everything that happens with the rest of the vampires. We made a deal with them that Bella would turn. They pretty much said that either we turn her or else..." He made a twisting motion around his neck with his hands.

"So you're saying that if you turned her, you'd break the treaty with them and get killed." I pointed at Jacob. "And if you didn't, you'd break the rules with the Volturi and also get killed? Why would you agree to this?"

"We didn't have a choice," answered Emmett.

"Well, who's more dangerous? The Volturi or the wolves?" I asked.

Jacob shook his head. "You can't possibly suggest you'd go to war or something like that?"

"No, that is what I am suggesting. It's a stupid rule that we didn't even break." I crossed my arms, hoping that I looked intimidating. "How else do you suggest we solve this conflict?"

Stefan finally spoke again. "We could leave."

I turned around to look at him. "What?"

"Haven't you been wanting to? We get off of the land affected by the treaty and the issue is solved. The Cullens didn't do anything wrong, so they'd be fine," he explained. I couldn't help but stare at him, surprised by his change of heart. "I just don't want to get killed by a bunch of wolves," he added.

"That could work. As long as you stay away, Sam should be fine with that," Jacob said. "It doesn't solve your problem with the Volturi, though."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Stefan told him. "For now, we should probably get packing, then."

Emmett looked upset. "You're leaving? Can't you stay for a couple more days?"

Jacob answered him. "I think that'd be fine. As long as you're gone soon, I don't think Sam will mind." He ran his hand through his black hair. "I'll talk to him tonight."

"That's what you're going to do then," said Emmett. "You can be on your way, now."

"Fine. Say hi to Bella for me, will you?" he asked, looking at me with sad eyes. He didn't linger any longer as soon as Rosalie joined us, giving him a glare that could kill. Even after he closed the door quietly behind him, I could still feel the tension in the room.

"So, I guess we should clean up our stuff then. Not that we have all that much stuff." I glanced down at the pajamas; they, along with all of my other clothes, were the property of either Alice or Rosalie. "We never finished cleaning up outside. It's a bit of a mess."

Emmett's sullen look turned to a smirk. "What exactly were you doing last night that made it so messy?"

I blushed. "Noth-"

Stefan interrupted me. "That's between Caroline and me." Emmett's eyebrows raised so high that I swore they were about to meld with the hair on his scalp. Stefan walked out the door and motioned for me to follow him, which I did.

"It's not like-"

"I know."

I nodded slowly and tried not to smile. "So, I'll put away the blankets and pillows, and you put back the big rock, okay?" I instructed. He agreed and picked up the boulder and started walking toward the forest where it had been previously. As I was brushing the grass off of a pillow, I heard a phone ring. Stefan stopped walking; his cell phone was ringing from his pocket.

"You gonna answer that?" I asked, watching him stand around holding the boulder.

"I don't know where to set this." He was standing in the middle of a patch of flowers and obviously, Esme would not like it if he placed the rock on top of them.

"Here, lemme help." I set the blankets down and appeared at his side. He looked at me quizzically before I stuck my hand in his pajama pocket and fished around for his phone. As soon as I did, I realized the awkward situation we were in and avoided eye contact with him. I... did grasp the phone, eventually. Men's pockets are much deeper than women's, I found.

"Stefan's phone," I answered.

" _Caroline?_ " said the familiar sounding person on the other end.

"Mom?" I laughed, overjoyed to hear her voice. "How are things?"

" _Care, listen to me. Don't come here, you'll get yourself killed."_

Stefan leaned over to listen in and I hurriedly spoke into the phone, "What's going on? What happened?"

I heard some shuffling on the other end. " _We're in Mystic Falls,"_ came Victoria's voice. " _Either you bring Bella here by tomorrow or I'm doing exactly the same to your mom as I did to poor Bella. And this time, she doesn't have your blood to save her."_


End file.
